Understanding Our Environment: An Introduction to Environmental Chemistry and Pollution - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0854045848 ISBN 13: 9780854045846

Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

This 2nd edition of Understanding Our Environment has been reworked and greatly updated, providing a modern introductory level text for students of pollution and environmental chemistry. The book describes the basic concepts in relation to the chemistry of the atmosphere, freshwaters, oceans and soils, as well as the ways in which pollutants behave in these media (exemplified by case studies based upon topical environmental problems). It also examines the transfer of pollutants between different environmental compartments, the monitoring of the environment, the ecological and human health effects of chemical pollution, economics and regulatory control. Again case studies are used throughout. This unique introductory text is essential reading for students on undergraduate and first year postgraduate courses dealing with pollution and environmental chemistry, as well as for scientists and engineers in industry, public service and consultancy who require a basic understanding of environmental processes.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Roy Harrison OBE is Queen Elizabeth II Birmingham Centenary Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Birmingham. In 2004 he was appointed OBE for services to environmental science. Professor Harrison's research interests lie in the field of environment and human health. His main specialism is in air pollution, from emissions through atmospheric chemical and physical transformations to exposure and effects on human health. Much of this work is designed to inform the development of policy.

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Understanding Our Environment

An Introduction to Environmental Chemistry and Pollution

By Roy M. Harrison

The Royal Society of Chemistry

Copyright © 1999 The Royal Society of Chemistry
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-85404-584-6

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Roy M. Harrison, 1, 
Chapter 2 The Atmosphere A. G. Clarke and A. S. Tomlin, 9, 
Chapter 3 Freshwaters John G. Farmer and Margaret C. Graham, 71, 
Chapter 4 The Oceanic Environment Stephen J. de Mora, 139, 
Chapter 5 Land Contamination and Reclamation B. J. Alloway, 199, 
Chapter 6 Environmental Cycling of Pollutants Roy M. Harrison, 237, 
Chapter 7 Environmental Monitoring Strategies C. Nicholas Hewitt and Robert Allott, 267, 
Chapter 8 Ecological and Health Effects of Chemical Pollution S. Smith, 331, 
Chapter 9 Managing Environmental Quality Andrew Skinner, 397, 
Subject Index, 437, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

ROY M. HARRISON

1 THE ENVIRONMENT AL SCIENCES

It may surprise the student of today to learn that 'the environment' has not always been topical and indeed that environmental issues have become a matter of widespread public concern only over the past twenty years or so. Nonetheless, basic environmental science has existed as a facet of human scientific endeavour since the earliest days of scientific investigation. In the physical sciences, disciplines such as geology, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, and hydrology, and in the life sciences, ecology, have a long and proud scientific tradition. These fundamental environmental sciences underpin our understanding of the natural world, and its current-day counterpart perturbed by human activity, in which we all live.

The environmental physical sciences have traditionally been concerned with individual environmental compartments. Thus, geology is centred primarily on the solid earth, meteorology on the atmosphere, oceanography upon the salt water basins, and hydrology upon the behaviour of freshwaters. In general (but not exclusively) it has been the physical behaviour of these media which has been traditionally perceived as important. Accordingly, dynamic meteorology is concerned primarily with the physical processes responsible for atmospheric motion, and climatology with temporal and spatial patterns in physical properties of the atmosphere (temperature, rainfall, etc.). It is only more recently that chemical behaviour has been perceived as being important in many of these areas. Thus, while atmospheric chemical processes are at least as important as physical processes in many environmental problems such as stratospheric ozone depletion, the lack of chemical knowledge has been extremely acute as atmospheric chemistry (beyond major component ratios) only became a matter of serious scientific study in the 1950s.

There are two major reasons why environmental chemistry has flourished as a discipline only rather recently. Firstly, it was not previously perceived as important. If environmental chemical composition is relatively invariant in time, as it was believed to be, there is little obvious relevance to continuing research. Once, however, it is perceived that composition is changing (e.g. CO2 in the atmosphere; 137Cs in the Irish Sea) and that such changes may have consequences for humankind, the relevance becomes obvious. The idea that using an aerosol spray in your home might damage the stratosphere, although obvious to us today, would stretch the credulity of someone unaccustomed to the concept. Secondly, the rate of advance has in many instances been limited by the available technology. Thus, for example, it was only in the 1960s that sensitive reliable instrumentation became widely available for measurement of trace concentrations of metals in the environment. This led to a massive expansion in research in this field and a substantial downward revision of agreed typical concentration levels due to improved methodology in analysis. It was only as a result of James Lovelock's invention of the electron capture detector that CFCs were recognized as minor atmospheric constituents and it became possible to monitor increases in their concentrations (see Table 1). The table exemplifies the sensitivity of analysis required since concentrations are at the ppt level (1 ppt is one part in 10l2 by volume in the atmosphere) as well as the substantial increasing trends in atmospheric halocarbon concentrations, as measured up to 1990. The implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which requires controls on production of CFCs and some other halocarbons, has led to a slowing and even a reversal of annual concentration trends since 1992 (see Table 1).

2 THE CHEMICALS OF INTEREST

A very wide range of chemical substances are considered in this book. They fall into three main categories:

(a) Chemicals of concern because of their human toxicity. Some metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury are well known for their adverse effects on human health at high levels of exposure. These metals have no known essential role in the human body and therefore exposures can be divided into two categories (see Figure 1). For these non-essential elements, at very low exposures the metals are tolerated with little, if any, adverse effect, but at higher exposures their toxicity is exerted and health consequences are seen. In the case of the so-called essential trace elements (see also Figure 1) the human body requires a certain level of the element, and if intakes are too low then deficiency syndrome diseases will result. These can have consequences as severe as the ones which result from excessive intakes. In between, there is an acceptable range of exposures within which the body is able to regulate an optimum level of the element.

Environmental exposure to chemical carcinogens is very topical despite the minuscule risks associated with many such exposures at typical environmental concentrations. Examples are benzene (largely from vehicle emissions) and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (generated by combustion of fossil fuels). Figure 2 shows the structures of benzene, benzo(a)pyrene (the best known of the carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (the most toxic of the chlorinated dioxin group of compounds). Despite great public concern over emission of the last compound, the evidence for carcinogenicity in humans is quite limited.

(b) Chemicals which cause damage to non-human biota but are not believed to harm humans at current levels of exposure. Many elements and compounds come into this category. For example, copper and zinc are essential trace elements for humans and environmental exposures very rarely present a risk to health. These elements are, however, toxic to growing plants and there are regulations limiting their addition to soil in materials such as sewage sludge which is disposed of to the land. Another category of substance for which there is ample evidence of harm to biota, but as yet little, if any, hard evidence of impacts on human populations, are the endocrine-disrupting chemicals (also termed oestrogenics). These synthetic chemicals mimic natural hormones and can disrupt the reproduction and growth of wildlife species. Thus, for example, bis-tributyl tin oxide (TBTO) interferes with the sexual development of oysters and its use as an anti-fouling paint for inshore vessels is now banned in most parts of the world. A wide range of other chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and many...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0854045848
• ISBN 13: 9780854045846
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 461
• Herausgeber: Harrison Roy M.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland