Development of a Plan for Global Monitoring of Human Exposure to and Environmental Concentrations of Mercury

This presentation document outlines planned next steps for developing a global framework to monitor human exposure to and environmental concentrations of mercury, presented at an international project meeting in Geneva in June 2017. It describes the context of collaboration between United Nations Environment, the Global Environment Facility, the World Health Organization, and an established global observation system, focusing on atmospheric mercury monitoring. The scope includes the design, testing, and validation of passive air samplers as a complementary approach to existing active monitoring networks. Methods involve pilot campaigns across background and polluted sites in multiple regions, laboratory analysis through thermal desorption, and quality assurance comparisons. The document reports preliminary deployment activities, sampling schemes, operational challenges, and planned reporting and dissemination actions.