Hoarding disorder is the excessive saving of objects and difficulty parting with them to a point that interferes with one's ability to properly use rooms and furnishings in the home. Hoarding can become dangerous, sometimes resulting in structural problems and fires, or in hazardous sanitary conditions. Studies indicate that around one in every 25 people suffers from hoarding. This means that almost all of us know someone who hoards. Hoarding: What Everyone Needs to Know demystifies this complex problem, what it looks like and why it may develop, and how it can be treated. With their combined expertise in psychological treatments for hoarding and community interventions, Drs. Steketee and Bratiotis explain how to understand hoarding as a mental illness, describing the disorder in layman's terms and explaining the various facets and manifestations of the behavior. Chapters focus on one or more common questions regarding diagnosis, features, how to assess severity, and treatment. The book will dispel myths and help readers identify hoarding that touches their own lives. As such it will be of great value not only to those who suspect a loved one may be hoarding, but also to first responders, such as firefighters, public health officials, and housing and social service personnel, who will find here an essential resource for use in the field.

Explores the human impacts on environment that lead to serious ecological crises, an innovative resource for students, professionals, and researchers alike Ecosystem Crises Interaction: Human Health and the Changing Environment provides a timely and innovative framework for understanding how negative human activity impacts the environment, and how seemingly disparate factors connect to, and magnify, hazardous consequences under a changing climate. Presenting a coherent, holistic perspective to the subject, this compelling textbook and reference examines the diverse, often unexpected links that connect our complex world in context of global climate change. The text illustrates how eco-crisis interaction--the synergistic interface of two or more environmental events or pollutants--can multiply to produce harmful health effects that are greater than their additive impact. This concept is highlighted through numerous real and relatable examples, from the use of sediment rock in hydraulic and drinking water filtration systems, to the connections between human development and crises such as deforestation, emergent infectious diseases, and global food insecurity. Throughout the text, specific examples present opportunities to consider broader questions about the extinction of species, populations, and ways of life. Presenting a balanced investigation of the interaction of contemporary ecological dangers, human behavior, and health, this unique resource: Explores how complex interactions between global warming and anthropogenic impairments magnify the diverse ecological perils and threats facing humans and other species Discusses roadblocks to addressing environmental risk, such as global elite polluters, the organized denial of climate change, and deliberate environmental disruption for financial gain Describes how the production and use of fossil fuels are driving a significant rise in carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere and in the oceans Illustrates how industrial production is contributing to an array of environmental crises, including fuel spills, waste leakages, and loss of biodiversity Examines the critical ecosystems that are at risk from interacting stressors of human origin Ecosystem Crises Interaction: Human Health and the Changing Environment is an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses including public and allied health, environmental studies, medical ecology, medical anthropology, and geo-health, and a valuable reference for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in fields such as environmental health, global and planetary health, public health, climate change, and medical social science.

From a new perspective, namely focusing on the interaction of selenium and mercury, this thesis provides new insights into traditional research on biogeochemical cycles of mercury in soil-plant interaction and associated human exposure and risks. The subject of this thesis is both valuable and timely, providing essential information not only on selenium-mercury interaction in the soil-plant system but also on how to assess the combined benefits and risk of co-exposure to mercury and selenium. This work also sheds light on future aspects regarding prevention, remediation and risk management for environmental mercury contamination. Presenting high-quality papers published in leading international SCI journals such as Environmental Health Perspectives and Environmental Science & Technology and having been recognized with the Special Award of Presidential Scholarship Award and Excellent Doctoral Dissertations Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), this thesis offers a valuable resource for scientific communities, policy-makers and non-experts who are interested in this field.

Dr. Hua Zhang works at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway.

Get the comprehensive resource for LGBT public health issues! Public health services for sexual minorities have suffered from practitioners' lack of knowledge about sexual or gender orientation, specific health concerns, and inherent system homophobia and heterosexism. The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health: A Practitioner's Guide to Service provides a unique focus on LGBT public health, offering positive direction for practitioners looking for guidance in methods to ensure a healthy community for all while taking into consideration the special needs of sexual minorities. Ignorance and fear by both practitioners and LGBT clients leads to less-than-optimum public health services. The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health extensively discusses these issues clearly, working to foster cultural competency among public health professionals. This book lays the groundwork for better understanding of LGBT health issues and their relationship to overall public health, then delves into the research on how incorporating LGBT cultural competency can improve academic institutions and continuing education programs. The problem of providing health care access and the health issues burdening each segment of the LGBT community are discussed in detail, all with a focus on providing effective solutions to tough challenges. Clear strategies are also presented for improving city, county, state, and national public health infrastructures and policies. The issue of productive and safe work environments in business and the private sector for LGBT individuals is addressed, along with a close look at the advantagesand pitfallsof media and Internet resources. Many chapters are illustrated with tables and diagrams; each chapter is exhaustively referenced, includes useful lists of selected resources, and asks questions to spark thought on the issues as they pertain to the reader's circumstances. The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health discusses: the inequities in health care for LGBT people overt prejudice, discrimination, disdain, or outright denial of services assumption by health professionals of risk factors based on sexual or gender orientation rather than individual behaviors and health history unwitting expression of biases of many public health practitioners the effect of social stigma on public health care services LGBT cultural competency framework for institutions of higher learning and professional organizations LGBT awareness, sensitivity, and competency training sexually transmitted diseases reproductive cancers intimate partner violence noncommunicable diseases among gay and bisexual men 'down low' behavior (avowed straight men with spouses having sex with other men) as public health issue AIDS-related malignancies transsexuals and transphobia hormonal therapy sex reassignment surgery (SRS) mental health needs of transsexuals, cross-dressers, and intersex individuals barriers to health care access insurance systems confidentiality of medical records substance use health care issues for LGBT youth and young adults health care needs of LGBT elders recommendations for improvement of health and welfare services The Handbook of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Public Health is a one-of-a-kind resource for LGBT public health issues, essential for public health professionals, practitioners, health services professionals, substance abuse counselors, disease intervention specialists, public health advisors, community health service administrators, community based agencies, and community health nurses. Educators in community hea

Carefully selected to reflect the latest research at the interface between public health and criminal justice in the US, these contributions each focus on an aspect of the relationship. How, for example, might a person's criminal activity adversely affect their health or their risk of exposure to HIV infection? The issues addressed in this volume are at the heart of policy in both public health and criminal justice. The authors track a four-fold connection between the two fields, exploring the mental and physical health of incarcerated populations; the health consequences of crime, substance abuse, violence and risky sexual behaviors; the extent to which high crime rates are linked to poor health outcomes in the same neighborhood; and the results of public health interventions among traditional criminal justice populations.

As well as exploring these urgent issues, this anthology features a wealth of remarkable interdisciplinary contributions that see public health researchers focusing on crime, while criminologists attend to public health issues. The papers provide empirical data tracking, for example, the repercussions on public health of a fear of crime among residents of high-crime neighborhoods, and the correlations between HIV status and outcomes, and an individual's history of criminal activity. Providing social scientists and policy makers with vital pointers on how the criminal justice and public health sectors might work together on the problems common to both, this collection breaks new ground by combining the varying perspectives of a number of key disciplines.

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Coordination of risk assessments and risk communication strategies requires information sharing and establishing networks of working relationships between groups and agencies. Establishing these relationships necessitates overcoming - stitutional, cultural, and political boundaries. Signi?cant barriers exist between r- ulatory agencies and industry groups. Traditionally, these groups have mistrusted one another, and cooperation and collaboration, including sharing information, c- respondingly has been limited. The adoption of radio frequency identi?cation te- nology for tracking livestock, for example, has been met with signi?cant resistance due in part to mistrust between regulatory agencies and producers (Veil, 2006). In the food industry, the need for coordination has been enhanced by industry in- gration and globalization of both markets and production. In the case of GM foods discussed earlier, disagreements between U. S. , European Union, and Canadian r- ulatory agencies fueled the debate over the safety of GM crops. Overcoming institutional and cultural barriers, and mistrust is necessary to create consistency in risk messages. Open communication and information sharing can help clarify where risk perceptions diverge and identify points of convergence. The outcome may not be universal agreement about risks, but convergence around the general parameters of risk. Summary These best practice strategies of risk communication are not designed to function as distinct steps or isolated approaches. Rather than being mutually exclusive, they serve to complement one another and create a coherent approach to confronting risk communication problems.

AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death among women of childbearing age and is increasing by about 8% a year in this group. * And yet, our understanding of the impact of HIV and AIDS on women's lives remains fragmented and incomplete. After a decade of struggling with mounting surveys of risk behavior, clinical trials, and behavioral interventions that were based primarily on experience with gay communities in large cities and, subsequently, on the needs of injection drug users, we have not given programs for women the attention they require if they are to be meaningful, effective, and gender appropriate. This book will introduce the reader to the range of complex issues of HIV and AIDS in women's lives. Ann O'Leary and Loretta Sweet Jemmott have assembled an impres sive list of authors who have contributed chapters from different disciplinary viewpoints. The reader will find information on prevention programs that have been effective for adolescent girls, on culturally specific strategies for African American and Latina women, and on the multiple issues of sub stance use and HIV that need to be faced by any outreach and intervention programs for drug-using women."

This book deals with the management of labour, guiding the readers to recognize problems by keen monitoring, based on anatomical and physiological understanding of labour. In this era of technology, this book revives the fading art of identification of clinical signs and symptoms. The chapters are well-structured, covering different aspects from suspicion to identification of the problems by recognizing subtle warning signals by the fetus and the uterus. Operative deliveries and common obstetric emergencies with their appropriate management are also covered. It provides practical points to prevent, anticipate, recognize, and manage problems during labour. Key Features Helps to identify clinical signs and symptoms that infuses the reader with confidence to identify and manage abnormal situations during labour and childbirth through the feel of their fingers and awakened understanding. A must have book for all postgraduate trainees and practitioners of obstetrics, eager to learn the fundamentals of labour management. Features illustrated cases helpful in learning management of normal labour and pick abnormal labour, at the earliest possible deviation from normalcy.

In contemporary manifestations of public health rituals and events, people are being increasingly united around what they hold in common-their material being and humanity. As a cult of humanity, public health provides a moral force in society that replaces 'traditional' religions in times of great diversity or heterogeneity of peoples, activities and desires. This is in contrast to public health's foundation in science, particularly the science of epidemiology. The rigid rules of 'scientific evidence' used to determine the cause of illness and disease can work against the most vulnerable in society by putting sectors of the population, such as underrepresented workers, at a disadvantage. This study focuses on this tension between traditional science and the changing vision articulated within public health (and across many disciplines) that calls for a collective response to uncontrolled capitalism and unremitting globalization, and to the way in which health inequalities and their association with social inequalities provides a political rhetoric that calls for a new redistributive social programme. Drawing on decades of research, the author argues that public health is both a cult and a science of contemporary society.

This handbook examines the psychology of fatherhood throughout the lifespan and across multiple contexts. It synthesizes the trajectory of research and theorization of fathering that has traditionally dominated fatherhood literature. The book explores fathering within the developmental stages of children, from infancy to adulthood. In addition, it addresses the health and well-being of fathers from the perinatal period onward, with a focus on isolation, loss, trauma, and mental and physical health. The book emphasizes positive fatherhood and masculinity, thereby offering new perspectives of fatherhood. It synthesizes cutting-edge research on the intersectionality of fathering and provides knowledge of fatherhood for diverse populations, including military, LGBTQ, and fathers on the margins. The handbook reviews clinical assessment as well as community-based prevention and intervention strategies for issues of fatherhood and examines directions for future public policy and on-the-ground work. It offers recommendations for promoting the health and well-being of fathers and their families from multiple perspectives. Key areas of coverage include: Historical, multicultural, and future directions in the research of fatherhood. Fatherhood and child development, from infancy to emerging adulthood. Grandfathering and adult children. Fatherhood and men's mental and physical health and well-being. Positive masculinity and fatherhood. The Handbook of the Psychology of Fatherhood is an invaluable resource for researchers, clinicians and practitioners, and policy advocates as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, human development, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, school and educational psychology, and all interrelated disciplines.

Poverty and inequality are among the most significant determinants of health. Increased inequality gaps associated with globalization have serious implications for global health. Global changes in political economy shape global health influencing who bears the burden from epidemics, unhealthy environments and lack of access to health care.

Revealing the dark truth about the impact of predatory private equity firms on American health care. Finalist of the American Book Fest Best Book Social Change and Current Events by the American Book Fest Private equity (PE) firms pervade all aspects of our modern lives. Unlike other corporations, which generally manufacture products or provide services, they leverage considerable debt and other people's money to buy and sell businesses with the sole aim of earning supersized profits in the shortest time possible. With a voracious appetite and trillions of dollars at its disposal, the private equity industry is now buying everything from your opioid treatment center to that helicopter that helps swoop you up from a car crash site. It may even control how and when you can get your kidney dialysis. In Ethically Challenged, Laura Katz Olson describes how PE firms are gobbling up physician and dental practices; home care and hospice agencies; substance abuse, eating disorder, and autism services; urgent care facilities; and emergency medical transportation. With a sharp eye on cost and quality of care, Olson investigates the PE industry's impact on these essential services. She explains how PE firms pile up massive debt on their investment targets and how they bleed these enterprises with assorted fees and dividends for themselves. Throughout, she argues that public pension funds, which provide the preponderance of equity for PE buyouts, tend to ignore the pesky fact that their money may be undermining the very health care system their workers and retirees rely on. Weaving together insights from interviews with business owners and experts, newspaper articles, purchased data sets, and industry publications, Olson offers a unique perspective and appreciation of the significance of PE investments in health care. The first book to comprehensively address private equity and health care, Ethically Challenged raises the curtain on an industry notorious for its secrecy, exposing the nefarious side of its maneuvers.

Learn how to create professional collaboration between HIV/AIDS researchers and community organizations for the benefit of all! This book is designed to help frontline prevention organizations answer two questions that are of utmost importance. First, how effective are their services; and second, can their work be improved? The absence of rigorous evaluation is a barrier to stable funding for community organizations, and the strategies in Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations can help overcome that barrier. The book is a guide to successful cooperative efforts between researchers and community-based organizations. The information it presents will help community-based programs acquire detailed, timely information on program effectiveness and outcomes. It also provides researchers with methods for accessing hard-to-reach or hidden HIV high-risk groups. Handy tables and figures make important data easy to access and understand. In Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations, you'll learn about the difficult but critically important collaboration between community organizations who do frontline prevention work and university scientists who evaluate the effectiveness of that work. The book describes the community-researcher equal partner collaboration (CREPC) model for community-based collaborative research. In addition, it examines six unique efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS among high-risk populations, such as prostitutes, injection drug users, impoverished pregnant women, migrant workers, transgendered persons, and prison inmates. The case studies in Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations describe the frustrations of outreach workers and counselors who suddenly must help design a survey they fear will be intrusive, and the parallel problems faced by scientists who are told that their traditional measures mean little to outreach workers. Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations presents funders' perspectives on collaborative AIDS research and examines the collaborative and funding aspects of: the CAL-PEP prevention programs for drug injectors and sex workers efforts to promote HIV prevention for migrant farm workers and evaluate those efforts' effectiveness the ongoing collaboration between The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (University of California, San Francisco), Centerforce (a statewide nonprofit agency providing services and advocacy to prisoners and their families), and San Quentin State Prison the effort of the Los Angeles County HIV Epidemiology Program and three community-based organizations, which collaborate to provide culturally appropriate outreach and HIV education/prevention services to transgendered individuals of various ethnic origins San Francisco's PHREDA project and the way its creators collaborated to better understand and serve high-risk women The U-Find-Out (UFO) Study, funded by the Universitywide AIDS Research Program of the State of California

This book draws attention to the non-biological-political, economic, societal and cultural-variables shaping both the emergence and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to it, with a particular focus on political decisionmakers' role in the domestic and international politics surrounding the process of the pandemic. The book identifies the strategic and underlying ethical failures of decision making, using a process-tracing approach to reconstruct considerations, decisions and actions by key leaders-interested in thus weaving a global narrative of the response. The author highlights key speech acts, and interprets the causal implications embedded in a chronological and contextualised appraisal of events, statements and public health measures. The book further discusses the normative ethics of pandemic response, and presents lessons drawn from the present experience. It also offers a normative analysis taking into consideration pre-pandemic guidelines for response, including in the literature of public health ethics and pandemic preparedness plans.

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was once asked, "When should the training of a child commence?" "A hundred years before birth" was the reply. Indeed it is this perspective on life through posterity that underlies the maturing field of international health, embracing as it does a respon sibility for and an awareness of the needs of all peoples. The concepts of international health are increasingly revitalizing modern medicine as it attempts to relieve mankind of the burden of disease. Curative medicine, once the paradigm, took a relatively benefi cient approach to treatment. But epidemiological recognition of the fre quency of disease on a global basis-and an appreciation of the vast number of those afflicted-evoked a humiliating backlash of awareness that curative medicine alone neither constrains disease nor permanently advances human health, happiness, or longevity. The growing reliance on truly international health strategies by national and international agencies, including the more definite and extended practice of preven tive medicine, has provided the means to achieve significant gains in the quality of health in years to come. A redeeming feature of contemporary failures in science and medi cine is that-once intelligently studied, analyzed, and evaluated-even these failed efforts may provide real insights that can mold our capacity and determination. So it is that, more than in any bygone age, the past ten years have seen the implementation of a sound and systematic in frastructure for international health undertakings, thus paving the way for improved health for all."

Learn how to create professional collaboration between HIV/AIDS researchers and community organizations for the benefit of all! This book is designed to help frontline prevention organizations answer two questions that are of utmost importance. First, how effective are their services; and second, can their work be improved? The absence of rigorous evaluation is a barrier to stable funding for community organizations, and the strategies in Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations can help overcome that barrier. The book is a guide to successful cooperative efforts between researchers and community-based organizations. The information it presents will help community-based programs acquire detailed, timely information on program effectiveness and outcomes. It also provides researchers with methods for accessing hard-to-reach or hidden HIV high-risk groups. Handy tables and figures make important data easy to access and understand. In Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations, you'll learn about the difficult but critically important collaboration between community organizations who do frontline prevention work and university scientists who evaluate the effectiveness of that work. The book describes the community-researcher equal partner collaboration (CREPC) model for community-based collaborative research. In addition, it examines six unique efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS among high-risk populations, such as prostitutes, injection drug users, impoverished pregnant women, migrant workers, transgendered persons, and prison inmates. The case studies in Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations describe the frustrations of outreach workers and counselors who suddenly must help design a survey they fear will be intrusive, and the parallel problems faced by scientists who are told that their traditional measures mean little to outreach workers. Preventing AIDS: Community-Science Collaborations presents funders' perspectives on collaborative AIDS research and examines the collaborative and funding aspects of: the CAL-PEP prevention programs for drug injectors and sex workers efforts to promote HIV prevention for migrant farm workers and evaluate those efforts' effectiveness the ongoing collaboration between The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (University of California, San Francisco), Centerforce (a statewide nonprofit agency providing services and advocacy to prisoners and their families), and San Quentin State Prison the effort of the Los Angeles County HIV Epidemiology Program and three community-based organizations, which collaborate to provide culturally appropriate outreach and HIV education/prevention services to transgendered individuals of various ethnic origins San Francisco's PHREDA project and the way its creators collaborated to better understand and serve high-risk women The U-Find-Out (UFO) Study, funded by the Universitywide AIDS Research Program of the State of California

How do we create a culture of zero tolerance for sexual violence on college campuses? In a world where one in five women on campus experience some form of sexual assault, what would it take to create a campus culture that was free of violence against women? From a public health perspective, sexual assault is an epidemic on campuses, but why? What is it about a campus community culture that permits or encourages this, at a time when a majority of students are now female? In this practical guide for colleges and universities, Joanne H. Gavin, James Campbell Quick, and David J. Gavin lay out a community-based model that is designed to eliminate sexual misconduct, spot it before it happens, punish its perpetrators, support its victims/survivors, and end this epidemic. Ending Sexual Violence in College is a prescriptive guide for creating a campus culture that is intolerant of sexual misconduct regardless of who is involved or the context in which it happens. A culture of intolerance, the authors argue, does not consider the role or status of either the perpetrator or victim/survivor. Rather, this culture protects all members. Using a public health model with an emphasis on prevention to create this cultural change, the book utilizes psychological and organizational research to understand the challenges of making these changes while enhancing the odds of permanent cultural change for the better. Designed to spur community-wide conversations on how we can make our campuses safe from sexual violence, this book's preventive approach allows communities to self-monitor. The authors include case studies of institutions that have not been proactive in putting programs in place to protect students, as well as examples of institutions that are effectively addressing these problems. Aimed at college administrators and Title IX coordinators who are responsible for leading campuses that are safe for everyone, Ending Sexual Violence in College also enables those who work or live on a college campus to take an active role in making the campus safer.

A Primer of Population Dynamics introduces to the basics of population studies. Author Krishnan Namboodiri utilizes a question-and-answer format that explores topics such as population theories and conceptual schemes, demographic data, mortality, fertility, migration, family and household, food production, and the environment and much more. Questions are accompanied by detailed explanations as well as references for additional information. An extensive index and glossary allow for easy retrieval of information. This introductory textbook is written for students studying demography, population, sociology, and public health.

Research in Community and Mental Health

Faced with infectious diseases, starvation, lack of medicines, lack of clean water, and safe sewage, Jewish physicians practiced medicine under severe conditions in the ghettos and concentration camps of the Holocaust. Despite the odds against them, physicians managed to supply public health education, enforce hygiene protocols, inspect buildings and latrines, enact quarantine, and perform triage. Many gave their lives to help fellow prisoners. Based on archival materials and featuring memoirs of Holocaust survivors, this volume offers a rich array of both tragic and inspiring studies of the sanctification of life as practiced by Jewish medical professionals. More than simply a medical story, these histories represent the finest exemplification of a humanist moral imperative during a dark hour of recent history.

Vaccinology and Methods in Vaccine Research is a combination of cutting-edge methodologies, experimental approaches and literature reviews. The book covers all aspects of vaccine development, including basic immunology (focusing on the stimulation of adaptive immunity, which is required for vaccine efficacy), approaches to vaccine design and target validation, vaccine biomanufacturer and clinical development. Existing vaccinology resources are theoretical reference books, whereas this book provides a practical handbook for use in the research lab and classroom by those working in vaccinology and training others in the field. It is authored and edited by scientists actively engaged in vaccine research and development for day-to-day teaching/methodological advice.

People have been using tobacco in a variety of forms for centuries. Remarkably, it was originally seen as something that could promote vigor and health. Of course, now we all know that tobacco use causes death and disability in epidemic proportions. If smoking is so bad for us, why in heaven’s name would anyone still smoke? Quite a bit has changed since tobacco first made the transition to a widely available agricultural product. Unfortunately, the general clinical approach to addressing this problem has failed to keep pace with tobacco technology and its addictive properties. People around the world who have fallen prey to the subtleties of nicotine addiction, or who care for those who have, would benefit from a deeper understanding of the ways in which nicotine can affect the brain’s function and change behaviors over a lifetime. Why People Smoke breaks down the science of tobacco dependence and presents it in a way that is both easily understandable and clinically useful for anyone interested in helping people break free of nicotine’s influence. Why People Smoke is a first-of-its-kind clinical guide to treating tobacco dependence. The book helps readers make meaningful connections between tobacco’s effects at the cellular level, the predictable behavioral manifestations of the disorder, and the social science and systems requirements required to make a fundamental impact on this disorder. Unlike previous publications like self-help books, step-by-step curricula, or clinical guidelines, Why People Smoke puts practical clinical insights—gained from twenty-five years of practice—into perspective, helping the reader understand how “brain change” translates into “mind change” and the persistent compulsion to smoke . . . despite a person’s desperate desire to stop. Reading Why People Smoke will change the way you see smoking forever.

Leon N. Moses In June 1991, the Transportation Center at Northwestern University sponsored Hazmat Transport '91: A National Conference on the Transportation of Hazardous Materials and Wastes. The faculty associated with the center were aware that there had been many professional, industrial and government conferences and meetings on the subject. However, they believed that the unique capacity of the Transportation Center to bring together leaders from industry and government, as well as leading scholars from economics, law, engineering, psychology and sociology who have done research on the problems associated with the transportation of hazardous materials and wastes (hazmats), could produce a set of integrated insights and understandings that would go well beyond those of previous conferences. The papers that make up this volume were all delivered at Hazmat Transport '91. From a legislative point of view, they tend to deal with issues associated with the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act of 1975 (HMTA), the original act passed to regulate the transportation of hazardous materials, and the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act of 1990 (HMTVSA). There were talks and papers presented at the conference that focused on other recent legislation and transportation issues with which HMTUSA does not deal. The conference proceedings volume also had discussions and papers on significant managerial and regulatory issues that could not be included in this volume because of constraints on its size. Therefore, this essay is made up of three parts.