A Comprehensive Global Inventory of Atmospheric Antimony Emissions from Anthropogenic Activities, 1995–2010

Abstract

Antimony (Sb) and its compounds are considered as global pollutants due to their health risks and long-range transport characteristics. A comprehensive global inventory of atmospheric antimony emissions from anthropogenic activities during the period of 1995-2010 has been developed with specific estimation methods based on the relevant data available for different continents and countries. Our results indicate that the global antimony emissions have increased to a peak at about 2232 t (t) in 2005 and then declined gradually. Global antimony emissions in 2010 are estimated at about 1904 t (uncertainty of a 95% confidence interval (CI): -30% ∼ 67%), with fuel combustion as the major source category. Asia and Europe account for about 57% and 24%, respectively, of the global total emissions, and China, the United States, and Japan rank as the top three emitting countries. Furthermore, global antimony emissions are distributed into gridded cells with a resolution of 1° × 1°. Regions with high Sb emissions are generally concentrated in the Southeastern Asia and Western Europe, while South Africa, economically developed regions in the eastern U.S., and Mexico are also responsible for the high antimony emission intensity.

Antimony Recovery from End-of-Life Products and Industrial Process Residues: A Critical Review

“…Antimony is also lost through emissions in the air, in the water, and on the land [177]. Total antimony emissions are difficult to estimate, but it has been shown that in Australia alone, total emissions of antimony (air, water, land) reach as much as 3.8 t/year during mining and 8.7 t/year during metal manufacturing.…”

“…However, the capture of antimony air emissions still needs to be improved. Tian et al [177] made a study of global yearly air emissions and calculated that in 2005 global air emissions of antimony reached 2232 t, and then gradually declined to about 1904 t in 2010. Atmospheric emissions are mostly caused by fuel combustion (42 %), waste incineration (24 %), brake wear (17 %), and metal production (17 %) [177].…”

Copper-promoted cementation of antimony in hydrochloric acid system: A green protocol

“…Unfortunately, antimony is also toxic and potentially carcinogenic to human [5]. The excessive exploitation and overuse of antimony have resulted in significant antimony soil and water contamination [6,7]. Antimony has been listed as a high priority pollutant by the World Health Organization (WHO).…”

The fate of atmospheric metal pollutants in the landscape, Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia

“…Humins, as were dated in this study, are considered, by some to be the SOM fraction which most closely resembles the true soil age (Pessenda et al, 2001). Although paired radiocarbon dates on the humin fraction and on macro-charcoal from the same depth have returned equivalent ages (Wang et al 2014, Pessenda et al 2001, it is not possible to rule out the addition of new carbon from root material to the humin fraction in this study. Consequently, radiocarbon ages presented here are considered to represent minimum ages reflecting the mean residence time (MRT) of carbon in soil,that is the average age of all components of different ages in the soil, allowing for renewal and decomposition.…”

“…In general, however, the history, magnitude and global extent of atmospheric contamination by many potential toxic metals remains poorly understood (Nriagu, 1990). (Nriagu, 1989), b ), c (Tian et al, 2014), d (Matschullat, 2011), e (Rauch and Pacyna, 2009) The precise timing and especially the magnitude of apparent enrichment varies between records and between regions, depending on the location and nature of the archive and the combination of local and distant contaminant sources (Bindler, 2011;Brännvall et al, 2001a;Harmens et al, 2008;Novák et al, 2003;Osterberg et al, 2008). In many cases, however, the chronology of Pb contamination reconstructed from peat and ice archives has been shown to match regional production volumes Le Roux et al, 2004;Marx et al, 2010;Renberg et al, 2000;Shotyk et al, 1998;Weiss et al, 1997) and is also in agreement with archaeological evidence (Martínez-Cortizas et al, 1997a), demonstrating the fidelity of peat and ice records for recording temporal trends in atmospheric contamination.…”