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Technological Issue
Development of two innovative mini-devices for measuring atmospheric mercury concentration,
whose main features (small dimensions, easiness of use and predisposition to networking)
differentiate it from the commercially available devices.
2) Development of an innovative mathematical model
to simulate mercury dispersion. The aim is to improve the accuracy and
the previsional ability of current mercury dispersion models, acquiring
simultaneous data from the µ-TAS network.
3) The epidemiological and
the environmental data will be analysed using new innovative Knowledge
Discovery in Databases (KDD) and Data Mining approaches. Typically, Data
Mining methods have two primary goals: prediction and description. Both
primary methods would be evaluated in order to better understand the correlations
between the results obtained from the epidemiological and environmental
researches.
4) Development of diffusion
samplers/dosimeters for gaseous mercury. The aim is to measure personal
exposure levels to mercury, particularly suitable for chlor-alkali workers.
Biomedical and Environmental Issue
1) The aim is to evaluate whether citizens living close to MCCA plants and chlor-alkali
workers have an increased uptake of mercury from environmental exposure and if any
adverse or subclinical effects, related to such uptake, can be shown.
Population samples in non-contaminated areas are used to obtain reference non-exposure values,
and chlor-alkali workers, with more extensive exposure, are used as "positive controls".
The results could support decision-making of public authorities, industries and individual citizens.
Assessment of atmospheric mercury level in the surroundings of the selected mercury
cell chlor-alkali plants. The three selected plants should be considered as demonstration
sites and will provide information on the magnitude of the effect of mercury exposure
on human health. The choice of MCCA plants located in three different countries
(Italy, Poland and Sweden), characterised by different climatic conditions, allows assessment
of the changing of mercury volatility and, consequently, difference in mercury emission and
re-emissions, mercury transport and deposition.
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