Environmental pollution is one of the main problems to confront humanity, with the heavy metals occupying a leading role among the most pernicious pollutants. The metals cause cancer and other sicknesses. Their cytotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic potentials are not fully understood, and any thorough investigation demands the combined efforts of scientists drawn from many different disciplines. But the effects of heavy metals are not all negative: some, like cis-DDP, and some ruthenium and tin complexes, have antitumour activity. The idea underlying the present work is therefore to present a multidisciplinary perspective on heavy metals in the environment, affording a better understanding of their action on human organisms and health, aiming to make them less polluting and more environmentally friendly.

Environmental problems have become increasingly complex. The procedures for investigating these problems cross the traditional boundaries of organic and analytical chemistry, microbiology and biology. Organic Chemicals: An Environmental Perspective brings together the basic issues of chemical analysis, distribution, persistence, and ecotoxicology.
The author illustrates each point with specific examples and presents a mechanistic approach to microbial reactions. Extensive cross referencing between chapters provides cohesion and complete coverage of issues tangential to each topic. The new edition has been extensively revised, and contains a new appendix, a new chapter, plus further revised information throughout the book. In fact, it is a completely new book.
A major difficulty in environmental science is that much of the background is widely scattered in the specialized chemical, microbiological, and biological literature. The coverage of all these areas in a single volume, the coherence supplied by the cross references, and the extensive references to the original literature makes Organic Chemicals: An Environmental Perspective a unique resource.

Written over a period of 17 years, the Handbook of Chemical Risk Assessment exhaustively examines and analyzes the world literature on chemicals entering the environment from human activities. The three volumes cover chemicals recommended by environmental specialists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other resource managers. The choices were based on the real or potential impact of each contaminant and on the knowledge available about their mitigation.
The information for each chemical includes source and use; physical, chemical, and metabolic properties; concentrations in field collections of abiotic materials and living organisms; deficiency effects; lethal and sublethal effects; and proposed regulatory criteria for the protection of human health and sensitive natural resources. Each chapter selectively reviews and synthesizes the technical literature on a specific priority contaminant and its effects on the environment.
Successful risk assessment relies heavily on extensive and well-documented databases. They often include too much - or too little - information about too many chemicals. Of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals discharged into the environment, only a small number have sufficient information to attempt preliminary risk assessment. Sold only as a three volume set, the Handbook of Chemical Risk Assessment provides you with the exact amount of information you need in a single resource.

This Reader contains a comprehensive collection of recent work by leading authors in the field of business and sustainable development. With 17 chapters organized thematically into sections covering 'business opportunities', 'environmental and social accounting', 'critical perspectives' and 'trade and sustainable development', The Earthscan Reader in Business and Sustainable Development is essential reading for all those with an interest in the role that business can play in moving society towards a sustainable future.

The deep sea is the last, vast wilderness on the planet. For centuries, myth-makers and storytellers have concocted imaginary monsters of the deep, and now scientists are looking there to find bizarre, unknown species, chemicals to make new medicines, and to gain a greater understanding of how this world of ours works. With an average depth of 12,000 feet and chasms that plunge much deeper, it forms a frontier for new discoveries. The Brilliant Abyss tells the story of our relationship with the deep sea - how we imagine, explore and exploit it. It captures the golden age of discovery we are currently in and looks back at the history of how we got here, while also looking forward to the unfolding new environmental disasters that are taking place miles beneath the waves, far beyond the public gaze. Throughout history, there have been two distinct groups of deep-sea explorers. Both have sought knowledge but with different and often conflicting ambitions in mind. Some people want to quench their curiosity; many more have been lured by the possibilities of commerce and profit. The tension between these two opposing sides is the theme that runs throughout the book, while readers are taken on a chronological journey through humanity's developing relationship with the deep sea. The Brilliant Abyss ends by looking forwards to humanity's advancing impacts on the deep, including mining and pollution and what we can do about them.

Groundwater and Surface Water Pollution contains almost all the technical know-how required to clean up our water supply. It provides a survey of up-to-date technologies for remediation, as well as a step-by-step guide to pollution assessment for both ground and surface waters.
The book defines groundwater, aquifers and surface water and discusses the physical properties of soils, liquids, vadose zones and aquifers. It emphasizes controlling nonpoint source pollution, best management practices, and an integrated management approach.
The editors cover not only engineering but also legal, medical, agricultural, meteorological, biological and other fields of study. They reach beyond the simplistic hydrological cycles usually addressed to the complexities encountered by rapidly-changing land-use patterns.
In addition to focusing on causes, effects, and remedies, Groundwater and Surface Water Pollution stresses reuse, recycling, and recovery of resources. Nature does not cause pollution. Through total recycling, we can, like nature, make resources out of wastes.

This book, along with its companion volume, discusses the research needs, institutional modifications, and legislative changes that must be addressed to deal more effectively with the risks of hazardous materials. Prominent among the research needs is the necessity to assess the health effects of low-level exposure to toxicants. For none of these agents (lead, mercury, radiation, PCDDs, dioxins, PCBs, pesticides) is the existing toxicological data sufficient to define unambiguously the dose-effect relationship in the low-dose domain. Another uncertainty is our ignorance of how individuals within the human population may vary in susceptibility to the agents because of differences in genetic background, age, sex, diet, health status, and exposure to extraneous environmental influences. Also identified among the research needs are methods for improving the technology of waste disposal, waste reduction, and waste recycling. Institutional changes necessary are the commitment to long-term, pro-active, prevention-oriented objectives; institutional mechanisms to achieve better consistency and coordination among different agencies; improvement in the reliability, credibility, and effectiveness with which institutions communicate risk-assessments and risk-management policies; and provision for more adequate education and training of all who must be involved. Finally, the need for certain legislative changes is considered, including better use of incentives, such as taxation and price support mechanisms; better use of enforcement provisions; statutes that address cross-media patterns of human exposure; and greater federal-state-local coordination in risk-assessment and risk-management activities.

This work examines the environmental impact of tributyltin in marine systems. It also considers trace element contamination in Antarctic ecosystems and trace metals in Antarctica related to climate change and increasing human impact.

The Chernobyl disaster of April 1986 confronted Europe with an unprecedented, though not unforeseeable, environmental risk. This investigative analysis studies why key European countries responded in different ways to the nuclear disaster, and what can be learned from it. The author details why the accident was defined differently in various countries, why actions were or were not taken, and what was learned about the management of nuclear risk. Furthermore, Liberatore studies the short-term and long-term responses and consequences of Chernobyl not only in specific countries, but within the European Union as a whole. Liberatore also provides a policy communication model to illustrate the interaction among the key personnel in such incidents: the scientists, the politicians, the interest groups, and the mass media. The author's focus upon "uncertainty management" is an account for all those who seek to understand and improve the practical management of transboundary risks.

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are predominantly unregulated anthropogenic chemicals that occur in air, soil, water, food, and plant/animal tissues in trace concentrations. ECs are persistent in the environment, capable of perturbing the physiology of target receptors and, therefore, are increasingly regarded as a subject of concern. This volume aims to enhance understanding of emerging contaminants' effects on plants and the environment and to highlight and address the need of sustainable and eco-friendly approaches in mitigating and remediating the effects of ECs. The book comprises chapters from diverse areas dealing with biotechnology, microbial technology, nanotechnology, molecular biology, remediation, and more. This volume will be useful to remediation practitioners, researchers, regulators and graduate students.

This book critically evaluates recently investigated feedstock for biofuels production. Biofuel sector is rapidly evolving to cater the renewable energy demands. Novel and advanced feedstock are being investigated for their techno-economic feasibility. Environmental concerns, food vs fuel debate, energy security, economic feasibility, and availability are the major drivers for exploring different feedstock for biofuel production. This book explores a wide range of potential biofuels feedstock, their functional concepts, recent advancement, novel technique and critical evaluation with other available biofuel feedstock. This book also discusses future prospects of biofuel production. It is a useful read for students, researchers, faculty, industry and policy makers in the biofuel field.

Among the many technological and legal efforts being made to restore our environment, electrostatic technologies may well hold the solution to the cleaning of air, water and soil. Such technologies include non-thermal plasma processing - electron beam irradiation, electrical discharge, hybrid plasma systems. The book also contains descriptions of the industrial implementation of the technology for NOx and SO2 removal using accelerated electrons. This technique has been implemented in three plants, built in China, Poland and Japan. Water pollution can be controlled and reduced by the use of ozone and UV irradiation. Soil pollution can be reduced by electrical methods and by using electrostatics to spray agricultural pesticides. Further articles cover the future of EHD systems in environmental protection, new aspects of ESD research, and industrial waste recycling technologies.

This book is not designed to be an exhaustive work on mine wastes. It aims to serve undergraduate students who wish to gain an overview and an understanding of wastes produced in the mineral industry. An introductory textbook addressing the science of such wastes is not available to students despite the importance of the mineral industry as a resource, wealth and job provider. Also, the growing imp- tance of the topics mine wastes, mine site pollution and mine site rehabilitation in universities, research organizations and industry requires a textbook suitable for undergraduate students. Until recently, undergraduate earth science courses tended to follow rather classical lines, focused on the teaching of palaeontology, cryst- lography, mineralogy, petrology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, structural geology, and ore deposit geology. However, today and in the future, earth science teachers and students also need to be familiar with other subject areas. In particular, earth science curriculums need to address land and water degradation as well as rehabili- tion issues. These topics are becoming more important to society, and an increasing number of earth science students are pursuing career paths in this sector. Mine site rehabilitation and mine waste science are examples of newly emerging disciplines. This book has arisen out of teaching mine waste science to undergraduate and graduate science students and the frustration at having no appropriate text which documents the scienti?c fundamentals of such wastes.

This text reassesses the basic premises that have guided electricity development for more than a century, in the light of new understanding, pressures and opportunities. It investigates the changes already in progress and those that may yet follow, their interactions and their implications for policy. As the world pursues sustainable development, what might "sustainable electricity" mean, and how can it be achieved?

"Zero Emissions" has become a definitive term in the debate on sustainable development. While considered a utopian target by some, the concept describes what business and industry of the future must aim to achieve: no pollution and no waste. This volume presents findings from the research work of over 2000 scientists undertaken under the banner of ZERI (Zero Emissions Research Initiative), a business foundation working jointly with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in a number of developing countries. Gunter Pauli feels that if we are serious about creating jobs, generating more income and eliminating pollution, we have to build on the assets we have instead of continuing to analyze the problems we face. The volume examines how the adoption of Zero Emissions concepts not only reduces pollution and waste but can contribute significantly to the generation of income and jobs - specifically for those who need them most - the rural poor in less developed countries.

This book combines the results of current research with essential background material to provide complete, in-depth coverage of every aspect of in situ and ex situ bioremediation, as well as an extensive overview of the physical and chemical processes currently available for treating petroleum-contaminated soils. Critical information has been collected and assembled under one cover to provide a convenient reference for anyone who must contend with this worldwide problem.
Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soils: Biological, Physical, and Chemical Processes describes how to optimize the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil-water systems. It reports on the susceptibility of various petroleum components to biodegradation by microorganisms, and considers all groups of microorganisms for their potential contributions. The book also deals with problem areas such as the transport of organisms, oxygen, or nutrients throughout the subsurface, as well as biodegradation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). In addition, the book presents a variety of methods for monitoring bioremediation.
This reference discusses current soil remediation processes and includes many innovative approaches. It also investigates means of controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and leachate, and addresses methods for collecting and treating these secondary waste streams. The expansive coverage of this book will furnish readers with a wide range of options for developing treatment strategies and for customizing procedures for specific requirements.

The very survival of the planet is at risk: human misuse of natural resources and disturbance of natural environmental systems is pushing the Earth to the limits of its capacity. This text is a comprehensive introduction for environmental study, explaining how the environment functions, how environmental systems relate, and the ways in which people and environment interact. Focussing particularly on the environmental impacts of human activities, the book explains the ways in which an understanding of basic physical principles can help us to use the environment and its resources. Three particular approaches are adopted throughout: "a systems approach" - highlighting the interactions and interrelationships between the environment's diverse parts; "an interdisciplinary perspective" - stepping back from individual subject focus to examine the complex breadth of the environment's diversity; and "a global perspective" - incorporating stimulating examples drawn from around the world to illustrate broad global patterns and contrasts.

Until now, information regarding chemical spill clean-up was available only through manufacturer's literature from an individual firm, or scattered in the traditional textbooks on remediation engineering and hazardous waste management. Survey of Chemical Spill Countermeasures provides a one-stop source of information on how to clean up spill sites in safe, acceptable ways. Because of the ever-growing need to maintain constant vigilance over hazardous chemicals and potential leaks and spills, this reference will become an important source for the practicing environmental engineer and field technician.
Survey of Chemical Spill Countermeasures provides operators with useful information on how to clean up sites, including controlling leakage, containment of spills on land and water, and ways to safely transfer and store the contaminants. Additionally, the book includes up-to-date information on containment and treatment technologies, from dredging and vacuuming, to solid and vapor treatment systems.

The protection of groundwater resources has emerged in recent years as a high priority topic on the agenda of many countries. In responding to the growing concern over deteriorating groundwater quality, many countries are developing a comprehensive regulatory framework for the management of subsurface water resources with management referring to both quantity and quality aspects. Within this framework, groundwater models are rapidly coming to playa central role in the development of protection and rehabilitation strategies. These models provide forecasts of the future state of the groundwater aquifer systems and/or the unsaturated zone in response to proposed management initiatives. For example, models will predict the effects of implementing a proposed management scheme on water levels and on the transport and fate of pollutants. The models are now used in the formulation of policies and regulations, the issuing of permits, design of monitoring and data collection systems, and the development of enforcement actions. The growth in the use of these sophisticated tools has led to many unforeseen problems in groundwater management. Lingering issues include reliability of codes, quality assurance in model development and applications, efficient utiliza tion of human and material resources, technology transfer and training. Some issues have legal ramifications, as in cases where the applications of models have been contested in courts."

This work investigates the dichotomy between the notion of polluting cities and rural idyll. Examining the emergence of the farm pollution problem in Britain in the 1980s, the book traces the resulting change in public opinion leading to a new "moralizing" of the countryside. Drawing on research carried out amongst dairy farmers, National River Authority Pollution Inspectors, agricultural advisers and environmental campaigners, the author discusses whether it is unacceptable to pollute in a farming environment or merely an unfortunate side-effect of dairy production processes in the 1990s. The author examines issues such as effluents in the environment; farm pollution regulation in the 1970s and 1980s; pollution control; and risk and regulatory science.

This text covers the proceedings of the third International Symposium - TISAR 98, held in Amsterdam. Topics include: basin recharge; water management in arid regions; behaviour of pollutants; bank, basin, well and other types of recharge; and storage and recovery efficiency.

Presenting a comprehensive introduction to the nature of pollution, this text looks at its impacts on the environment, and the practical options and regulatory frameworks for pollution control. Sources of pollution, regulatory controls - including the role of authorities and precautionary and polluter pays principles - technological solutions, management and mitigation techniques and assessment tools, are examined in each key area: air, freshwater and marine pollution, contaminated land and radioactive substances. Illustrated with a range of case examples from the UK, Europe and worldwide, this book offers an up-to-date guide to both the principles and practice of pollution management.

Since the late 1970s, the European Union (EU) has seen an immense growth in regulatory measures aimed at environmental protection. In more recent years, this regulatory activity has come under increasing criticism. This has coincided with a more general disenchantment with regulation, resulting in a wave of "deregulation" initiatives. These initially focused on privatization and market liberalization in various industries (economic deregulation), but subsequently have also been applied to environmental policy itself. This text looks at two separate, but related facets of deregulation in the EU. Through case studies of the energy transport and water sectors, it examines the environmental implication of economic deregulation. Dealing with options for deregulation in environmental policy, the book looks at self-regulation, negotiated agreements and environmental management systems. A number of other issues are also addressed such as the links between deregulation, environmental protection and competition.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology provides detailed review articles concerned with aspects of chemical contaminants, including pesticides, in the total environment with toxicological considerations and consequences.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) continue to be the subject of concern amongst the public, as well as the scientific and policy-making communities. These concerns are exemplified by the international efforts co-ordinated by the United Nations' Environment Programme and the +Economic Commission for Europe. Whilst the ultimate origin of this concern is the adverse effects of persistent organic pollutants in both humans and wildlife, there are other factors involved. In particular, whilst ambient concentrations of POPs in air and water present little direct hazard via inhalation and ingestion respectively, their propensity for transfer through the food chain means that species at the top of the ecological pyramid - including humans - can be exposed to concentrations of concern via their diet. Furthermore, their ability to undergo long-range atmospheric transport means that they represent a truly cross-boundary problem for mankind. Persistent Organic Pollutants focuses on the sources, atmospheric behaviour, terrestrial and aquatic food chain transfer, and human exposure and fate aspects of this important class of chemicals. Other topical issues are addressed, namely: temporal trends in contamination; their transport to polar regions; and the significance of the former Warsaw Pact nations of Central and Eastern Europe as both a global reservoir and source of POPs. Whilst the main focus is on PCDD/Fs, PCBs, and PAH; other organochlorine POPs such as DDT, lindane, and dieldrin are covered. Persistent Organic Pollutants also provides up-to-date, detailed, and authoritative coverage required by academics, environmental consultants, and policy-makers. Sufficient introductory material is also included to be of relevance to final year undergraduates, Masters and PhD students in Environmental Science/Chemistry.