Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Potential human health effects of acid rain

Book ·
OSTI ID:6404659
Adverse human health effects, namely acute and chronic respiratory effects, can occur from the pre-deposition phase of the acid rain phenomenon due to inhalation of acidic particles and gases. State-of-the-art methodology to evaluate these effects is just now being applied to this question. The major post-deposition effect of the acid rain phenomenon is to acidify water, increasing solubility and subsequent human exposure to mercury, lead, cadmium, and aluminum. Acidification increases bioconversion of mercury to methylmercury, a highly toxic compound, which accumulates in fish, increasing the risk to toxicity in people who eat fish. Increase in water and soil content of lead and cadmium increases human exposure to these metals which become additive to other sources presently under regulatory control. The potential adverse health effects of increased human exposure to aluminum is not known at the present time. Deficiencies in the identification of the contribution of pre-deposition of air pollutants and post-deposition mobilization of toxic metals to the recognized potential health effects of the involved toxic substances is due to the fact that scientists have not addressed these specific questions. 113 references, 4 figures, 2 tables.
OSTI ID:
6404659
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English