Mercury in the Town of Idrij a (Slovenia) After 500 Years of Mining and Smelting
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Fig. I. Map showing the reference locat ion, locatio ns of sampling and transplantation areas of lichens
and the mercury sources
concentrations in lichens sampled in situ were still unknown at the time. The
locations of transplantation are also shown in Fig. I.
Since in the 1970S (Stegnar 1980) researchers found that some plants
(especially carrot) can bioaccumulate and asimilate Hg during their growth, we
collected samples of carrot and bean from ten different locations in Idrija town,
in the autumn of 1995, in order to compare the results obtained with those from
the 1970S. Figure 2 shows the sampling locations of carrots and beans. Bean
sample consisted of climbing (or pole) beans, and only the inner seed, not the
pod, was analyzed. Carrots were carefully cleaned by slicing to remove outer
contamination.
Total Hg in freeze-dried samples of lichens, carrots and beans was determined
by gold amalgamation spectrometry (CV AAS) after acid decomposition under
pressure (Horvat et al. 1991). Both analytical techniques are used for routine
analysis of total Hg in the Laboratory of the Jdrija Mercury Mine.