A comprehensive framework to assess elemental mercury in the Department of Energy: A time series analysis.

Cannady, Ryan T; Beseler, Cheryl; Gwon, Yeongjin; Jahn, Steven · J Occup Environ Med · 2026

Where this comes from

Abstract

This study investigated whether seasonal categories affect airborne mercury concentrations in the U.S. Department of Energy operations. We conducted an initial assessment of the general variability of airborne elemental mercury time-weighted average (TWA) samples. Then, we performed a two-component time series analysis to determine whether long-term, cyclical temperature change patterns affect mercury concentrations. Both ARIMA time series models demonstrated stationary, non-random means (χ² = 83.8, p < 0.001) and standard deviation (χ² = 55.8, p < 0.001) of mercury concentrations. Our results indicate that the seasonal factors did not influence mercury concentration. Our results demonstrate that mercury concentrations primarily emanate from operational activities, work practices, and/or transient environmental conditions rather than seasonal fluctuations.