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Table 1. Industrial and other uses of mercury in the United States in <br />1959 and in 1969. All values are in metric tons (modified from Montague <br />and Montague 1971). <br />Use <br />Chloralkali process 201 15.5 716 30.4 <br />Electrical apparatus 308 23.6 644 27.3 <br />Antifouling and mildew paints 121 9.3 336 14.2 <br />Control devices 213 16.3 241 10.2 <br />Dental preparations 63 4.8 105 4.5 <br />Catalysts 33 2.5 102 4.3 <br />Agriculture 110 8.4 93 3.9 <br />Laboratory 38 2.9 71 3.0 <br />Pharmaceuticals 59 4.5 25 1.1 <br />Pulp and paper mill 150 11.5 19 0.8 <br />Metal amalgamation 9 0.7 7 0.3 <br />Total 1,305 2,359 <br />1959 1969 <br />Tons Percent Tons Percent <br />Table 2. Amount of mercury in some global reservoirs (NAS 1978), and <br />residence time (Clarkson et al. 1984). <br />Reservoir <br />Hg content <br />(metric tons) <br />Residence <br />time <br />Atmosphere <br />Soils <br />Freshwater <br />Freshwater biota (living) <br />Ocean water <br />Oceanic biota (living) <br />Ocean sediments <br />850 <br />21,000,000 <br />200 <br />4 <br />4,150,000,000 <br />3 <br />330,000,000,000 <br />6 to 90 days <br />1,000 years <br />2,000 years <br />>1 million years <br />5