Polish quicksilver

Poland – together with Germany and Spain – is one of three main “deliverers” of quicksilver in European Union.
All this because of obsolete power plants, which are heated by coal, as well as cement mills and – to some degree – chemical industry. We emit 20 tons of quicksilver dust a year. Swept away by the wind it falls houndreds kilometres from the source of emition and finally settles in rivers and lakes. Quicksilver also reach rivers and lakes directly – with sewage and ground water carrying toxins from, for example, landfill sides. The concentration of this metal in rivers usually do not exceed norms. Much worst thing is with lakes and artifitial reservoirs – significant part of them were intensively poisoned by dirty rivers and industry for decades.
Quicksilvers also poisons our Baltic Sea. The concentration in our sea is few times higher than in neighbouring North Sea, although this level is not dangerous for people. However, it can be bad for animals. Quicksilver, together with other toxins and chemicals is, to a large extent, responsible for the extermination of Baltic seals, whose reproductive and immunity system was damaged by the poisons.