Abstract
Mercury (Hg) concentrations were measured in 26 Scottish single malt whiskies, and all found to be very low (<10 ng L−1), posing no threat to human health through reasonable levels of consumption. However, a significant south-to-north declining gradient in Hg concentrations was observed reflecting that reported for atmospheric deposition. We speculate that this gradient could be due to a combination of contemporary deposition and the legacy of industrial mercury emissions and deposition over the last 200 years affecting concentrations in local waters used in whisky production. As UK atmospheric emissions of mercury have declined by 90 % since the 1970s, we suggest that whisky being produced today should have even lower Hg concentrations when consumed in 10- to 15-years time. This reduction may be compromised by the remobilisation of contaminants stored in catchment soils being transferred to source waters, but is very unlikely to raise the negligible health risk due to Hg from Scottish single malt whisky consumption.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Anderson, H., Futter, M., Oliver, I., Redshaw, J., & Harper, A. (2010). Trends in Scottish river water quality. Stirling: Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Braune, B. M., Outridge, P. M., Fisk, A. T., Muir, D. C. G., Helm, P. A., Hobbs, K., et al. (2005). Persistent organic pollutants and mercury in marine biota of the Canadian Arctic: An overview of spatial and temporal trends. Science of the Total Environment, 351–352, 4–56.
Choi, A. L., & Grandjean, P. (2008). Methylmercury exposure and health effects in humans. Environmental Chemistry, 5, 112–120.
Clayden, M. G., Kidd, K. A., Wyn, B., Kirk, J. L., Muir, D. C. G., & O’Driscoll, N. J. (2013). Mercury biomagnification through food webs is affected by physical and chemical characteristics of lakes. Environmental Science and Technology, 47, 12047–12053.
Davidson, P. W., Myers, G. J., & Weiss, B. (2004). Mercury exposure and child development outcomes. Pediatrics, 113, 1023–1029.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (2015a). Data archive webpage. http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/. Accessed March 15, 2015.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (2015b). UK pollutant deposition maps. http://pollutantdeposition.defra.gov.uk/image/tid/47?page=1. Accessed March 15, 2015.
Getis, A., & Ord, J. K. (1992). The analysis of spatial association by use of distance statistics. Geographical Analysis, 24, 189–206.
Harmens, H., Norris, D. A., Steinnes, E., Kubin, E., Piispanen, J., Alber, R., et al. (2010). Mosses as biomonitors of atmospheric heavy metal deposition: Spatial patterns and temporal trends in Europe. Environmental Pollution, 158, 3144–3156.
Hunt, L. (1996). Whisky warning brings unseasonal anger. The Independent 20th December 1996. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/whisky-warning-brings-unseasonal-anger-1315287.html. Accessed December 11, 2014.
Kleinjans, J. C., Moonen, E. J. C., Dallinga, J. W., Albering, H. J., van den Bogaard, A. E. J. M., & van Schooten, F.-J. (1996). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in whiskies. The Lancet, 348, 1731.
Lapointe, F.-J., & Lagendre, P. (1994). A classification of pure malt scotch whiskies. Applied Statistics, 43, 237–257.
Lima, F. W., Silva, C. M., & Guimarães, R. (1973). An actual case of examination of counterfeited whisky. Journal of Radioanalytical Chemistry, 15, 157–164.
Mergler, D., Anderson, H. A., Chan, L. H. M., Mahaffey, K. R., Murray, M., Sakamoto, M., & Stern, A. H. (2007). Methylmercury exposure and health effects in humans: A worldwide concern. Ambio, 36, 3–11.
National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. http://naei.defra.gov.uk/. Accessed October 24, 2014.
Rimmer, C. C., Miller, E. K., McFarland, K. P., Taylor, R. J., & Faccio, S. D. (2010). Mercury bioaccumulation and trophic transfer in the terrestrial food web of a montane forest. Ecotoxicology, 19, 697–709.
Rose, N. L., & Juggins, S. (1994). A spatial relationship between carbonaceous particles in lake sediments and sulphur deposition. Atmospheric Environment, 28, 177–183.
Rose, N. L., Yang, H., Turner, S. D., & Simpson, G. L. (2012). An assessment of the mechanisms for the transfer of lead and mercury from atmospherically contaminated organic soils to lake sediments with particular reference to Scotland, UK. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 82, 113–135.
RoTAP. Review of Transboundary Air Pollution: Acidification, Eutrophication, Ground Level Ozone and Heavy Metals in the UK. 2012. Contract report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
Rowland, A. P., Lawlor, A. J., Guyatt, H. J., & Wadsworth, R. A. (2010). Background wet deposition of mercury in Great Britain. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 12, 1747–1755.
Scotchwhisky.net. www.scotchwhisky.net. Accessed October 20, 2014.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2002). Method 1631, revision E: Mercury in water by oxidation, purge and trap, and cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry. http://water.epa.gov/scitech/methods/cwa/metals/mercury/index.cfm
World Health Organisation. (2003). Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives. 61st meeting. Rome, 10–19 June 2003. www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/news/notes/2003/np20/en/. Accessed December 17, 2014.
World Health Organisation. (2005). Mercury in drinking water. Background document for development of WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/mercuryfinal.pdf. Accessed October 20, 2014.
World Health Organisation. (2010). Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives. 72nd meeting. Rome, 16–25 February 2010. www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/summary72_rev.pdf. Accessed December 17, 2014.
World Health Organisation. (2013). World Health Organisation welcomes international treaty on mercury. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2013/mercury_20130119/en/
Yang, H., Rose, N. L., Battarbee, R. W., & Boyle, J. F. (2002). Mercury and lead budgets for Lochnagar, a Scottish mountain lake and its catchment. Environmental Science and Technology, 36, 1383–1388.
Acknowledgments
We thank scientists from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (W. Duncan; J. Best); Scottish Natural Heritage (I. Sime); the UK Environmental Change Network (D. Monteith); and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (A. Lawlor) for their help in trying to trace mercury data for surface waters and deposition in Scotland. In particular, we thank Alistair McCartney and Iain Malcolm (Freshwater Laboratory, Marine Scotland) for providing access to the data they hold. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions on improving the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rose, N.L., Yang, H. & Turner, S.D. A gradient of mercury concentrations in Scottish single malt whiskies. Environ Geochem Health 38, 309–313 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-015-9704-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-015-9704-1