When officials in Florida carried out hundreds of tests of lakes, rivers and streams throughout the state, they found levels of mercury in fish higher than what could normally be expected.

Scientists eventually concluded that most of the mercury found in Florida waterways comes from the skies, in the form of mercury-laden rain. But how does it get into the rain in the first place? Well, according to P2Pays.org, it is:

“... introduced into the atmosphere from the smokestacks of a variety of industries, a substantial amount of this gaseous elemental mercury could drift for as long as a year in the upper atmosphere before falling back to earth ... All sorts of heavy industries -- primarily in the northern hemisphere both in this country and abroad -- throw vaporized, elemental mercury skyward ... By the time this mercury-laden air reaches Miami ... ozone and ultraviolet radiation have chemically altered a comparatively small proportion of the non-soluble elemental mercury and turned it into a highly reactive, gaseous form that readily mixes with water molecules.”

So is it also raining mercury in the UK? And is anyone checking our waterways for mercury, I wonder?