Love Canal Tragedy

The purpose of this environmental failure case study paper is to provide educational materials for environmental engineering courses dealing with design and operation of landfills for hazardous waste. In 1978, it was discovered that hazardous waste had contaminated homes and schools in the Love Canal area, a former chemical landfill which became a 15 acre neighborhood of the City of Niagara Falls, New York. On August 7, 1978, the United States President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at the Love Canal. The Love Canal became the first man-made disaster to receive such a designation based on a variety of environmental and health related studies. Background, causes and effects of environmental failure, and remediation actions of the Love Canal superfund site are described in this paper. Lessons learned from this case study show the importance of identification of hazardous waste and the proper disposal of hazardous waste for the protection of the public health and the environment.     

膨润土防水毯(GCL)和土工膜(GM)作为危险废物填埋场复合场衬垫系统的研究

根据国家环保总局发布的《危险废物安全填埋处置工程建设技术要求》(环发[2004]75号)中对危险废物填埋场的防渗系统的要求,介绍了膨润土防水毯(GCL)代替压实粘土层(CCL)作为危废填埋场防渗系统的优势,并根据对美国91个已建成的危险废物填埋场所采用的不同的衬垫系统进行综合分析,证明GCL/GM复合衬垫系统较之CCL/GM能达到更优秀的防渗效果。     

National annual dioxin emissions estimate for hazardous waste incinerators

Reducing emissions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, commonly known as dioxins, is a high priority for environmental regulatory bodies throughout much of the world. In the United States, Section 112 (c)(6) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify and control emissions from sources that are responsible for at least 90% of the overall emissions of seven targeted hazardous air pollutants, including dioxins. On April 19, 1996, the EPA proposed Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) Standards for Hazardous Waste Combustors (HWCs). In that preamble, the EPA estimated annual dioxin emissions from the nation's hazardous waste incinerators (HWIs) to be 79 grams expressed as 2,3,7,8 tetrachloro dibenzo-p-dioxins (TCDD) international toxic equivalents (ITEQs). However, early EPA dioxin emission estimates from medical waste incinerators and cement kilns were significantly overestimated; so, the following independent national dioxin emissions estimate for HWIs was prepared. This estimate corrects the errors in the EPA's HWI emissions database, uses an updated inventory of HWIs in the United States, and applies statistical imputation techniques that take maximum advantage of the limited dioxin emissions data for HWIs.     

Religion, psychopathology, and substance use and abuse; a multimeasure, genetic-epidemiologic study

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) utilizes chemical-specific minimal risk levels (MRLs) to assist in evaluating public health risks associated with exposure to hazardous substances. The MRLs are derived based on the data compiled from current worldwide literature searches and presented in ATSDR's toxicological profiles. These documents profile not only individual chemicals, but also groups of chemically related compounds and chemical mixtures. ATSDR took several approaches when developing MRLs for chemical mixtures. In some instances, toxicity equivalency factors were used to estimate the toxicity of the whole mixture; in other instances, the most toxic chemical was assumed to drive the health assessment for the whole mixture. Another approach was to treat the mixture as one entity and develop a health guidance value for the whole mixture. In yet another approach, each chemical of the mixture was evaluated separately and several health guidance values were developed. In the future, ATSDR will evaluate priority chemical mixtures found at hazardous waste sites. A weight-of-evidence approach, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling and bench-mark dose modeling, and quantitative structure-activity relationships will have an impact on the development of MRLs and the assessment of chemical mixtures.     

Public perceptions of a radioactively contaminated site: concerns, remediation preferences, and desired involvement

A public attitudes survey was conducted in neighborhoods adjacent to a radioactively contaminated site whose remediation is now under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy's Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The survey's purpose was to ascertain levels of actual and desired public involvement in the remediation process; to identify health, environmental, economic, and future land-use concerns associated with the site; and to solicit remediation strategy preferences. Surface water and groundwater contamination, desire for public involvement, and potential health risks were found to be the most highly ranked site concerns. Preferred remediation strategies included treatment of contaminated soil and excavation with off-site disposal. Among on-site remediation strategies, only institutional controls that leave the site undisturbed and do not require additional excavation of materials were viewed favorably. Cost of remediation appeared to influence remediation strategy preference; however, no strategy was viewed as a panacea. Respondents were also concerned with protecting future generations, better assessment of risks to health and the environment, and avoiding generation of additional contaminated materials.     

Chemical mixtures released from hazardous waste sites: implications for health risk assessment

Uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (HWS) and exposure to hazardous substances continue to pose complex public health problems. This paper presents an overview of chemicals, including chemical mixtures, that have been released into environmental media in the vicinity of HWS. We describe how this type of information is being used to assess the public health implications of exposures to chemical mixtures and to develop an integrated program of applied research to more accurately characterize the potential health effects of chemical mixtures. A narrative, weight-of-evidence approach, incorporating mechanistic insights on chemical interactions is described. The utility of this information in the context of risk analysis and public health practice is discussed.     

Applying a One-Dimensional Mass Transport Model Using Groundwater Concentration Data

One-dimensional analytical mass transport models are familiar to environmental professionals because they are typically used as learning devices in undergraduate groundwater courses. The application of the models requires relatively certain knowledge of contaminant release to the saturated zone. However, release data are typically not reliably known at sites with uncontrolled contaminant releases. A mass balance approach has been developed to calculate contaminant release parameters based on site-specific groundwater concentration data. Standard numerical calibration and sensitivity analysis techniques were modified for use with the one-dimensional spreadsheet model. A groundwater concentration dataset from a Superfund site was used to evaluate three schemes for calculating the model initial concentration. The site application demonstrates how the spreadsheet model could be used for preliminary remediation system comparisons including restoration time estimating. The use of the spreadsheet model may reduce the effort associated with subsequent numerical modeling typically required for remedial design. The spreadsheet application highlights the importance of collecting physical data with groundwater concentration data.     

Human exposure assessment and the National Toxicology Program

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/National Toxicology Program (NIEHS/NTP) is developing a new interagency initiative in exposure assessment. This initiative involves the NIEHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through its National Center for Environmental Health, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the EPA, and other participating institutes and agencies of the NTP. This initiative will benefit public health and priority setting in a number of ways. First, as discussed above, it will strengthen the scientific foundation for risk assessments by the development of more credible exposure/response relationships in people by improving cross-species extrapolation, the development of biologically based dose-response models, and the identification of sensitive subpopulations and for "margin of exposure" based estimates of risk. Second, it will provide the kind of information necessary for deciding which chemicals should be studied with the limited resources available for toxicological testing. For example, there are 85,000 chemicals in commerce today, and the NTP can only provide toxicological evaluations on 10-20 per year. Third, we would use the information obtained from the exposure initiative to focus our research on mixtures that are actually present in people's bodies. Fourth, we would obtain information on the kinds and amount of chemicals in children and other potentially sensitive subpopulations. Determinations of whether additional safety factors need to be applied to children must rest, in part, upon comparative exposure analyses between children and adults. Fifth, this initiative, taken together with the environmental genome initiative, will provide the science base essential for meaningful studies on gene/environment interactions, particularly for strengthening the evaluation of epidemiology studies. Sixth, efficacy of public health policies aimed at reducing human exposure to chemical agents could be evaluated in a more meaningful way if body burden data were available over time, including remediation around Superfund sites and efforts to achieve environmental justice. The exposure assessment initiative is needed to address public health needs. It is feasible because of recent advances in analytical technology and molecular biology, and it is an example of how different agencies can work together to better fulfill their respective missions.     

Recruitment and retention of nursing students in Kuwait

Occupational and toxicological studies have demonstrated adverse health effects from exposure to toxic air contaminants. Data on outdoor levels of toxic air contaminants have not been available for most communities in the United States, making it difficult to assess the potential for adverse human health effects from general population exposures. Emissions data from stationary and mobile sources are used in an atmospheric dispersion model to estimate outdoor concentrations of 148 toxic air contaminants for each of the 60,803 census tracts in the contiguous United States for 1990. Outdoor concentrations of air toxics were compared to previously defined benchmark concentrations for cancer and noncancer health effects. Benchmark concentrations are based on standard toxicological references and represent air toxic levels above which health risks may occur. The number of benchmark concentrations exceeded by modeled concentrations ranged from 8 to 32 per census tract, with a mean of 14. Estimated concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde, and 1,3-butadiene were greater than cancer benchmark concentrations in over 90% of the census tracts. Approximately 10% of all census tracts had estimated concentrations of one or more carcinogenic HAPs greater than a 1-in-10,000 risk level. Twenty-two pollutants with chronic toxicity benchmark concentrations had modeled concentrations in excess of these benchmarks, and approximately 200 census tracts had a modeled concentration 100 times the benchmark for at least one of these pollutants. This comprehensive assessment of air toxics concentrations across the United States indicates hazardous air pollutants may pose a potential public health problem.     

Risks and prevention of contamination of dairy products

Consumers and regulatory officials are becoming increasingly aware of the human health risk of the presence of micro-organisms or chemicals in the agricultural environment. Providing 'on-farm food safety' programmes which address the daily management of the production unit with regard to animal health and well-being, public health and environmental health must be a top priority for agriculturalists and veterinarians. Developing critical control point management (CCPM) procedures for animal and human health concerns is a viable approach to aid in alleviating public concerns about dairy products and the food supply in general. Such CCPM programmes may be created for individual production units based upon risk analysis, total quality management and hazard analysis and critical control point principles. Implementation of these programmes will be essential both in addressing food safety concerns for the resident population of a nation and in developing or maintaining international markets for the export of animal products.     

The yellowed archives of yellowcake

Extensive historical documentation of exposures and releases at government-owned energy facilities is a unique and valuable resource for analyzing and communicating health risks. Facilities at all stages of the atomic fuel cycle were the subject of numerous industrial hygiene, occupational health, and environmental assessments during the Cold War period. Uranium mines and mills on the Colorado Plateau were investigated as early as the 1940s. One such facility was the mill in Monticello, Utah, which began operation as a vanadium extraction plant in 1943 and was later adapted to recover uranium from carnotite ores. The mill ceased operation in 1960. The site was added to the federal Superfund list in 1986. ATSDR held public availability sessions in 1993 as part of its public health assessment process, at which several former mill workers voiced health concerns. An extensive literature search yielded several industrial hygiene evaluations of the Monticello mill and health studies that included Monticello workers, only two of which had been published in the peer-reviewed literature. In combination with the broader scientific literature, these historical reports provide a partial basis for responding to mill workers' contemporary health concerns. The strengths and limitations of the available exposure data for analytical epidemiologic studies and dose reconstruction are discussed. As an interim measure, the available historical documentation may be especially helpful in communicating about health risks with workers and communities in ways that acknowledge the historical context of their experience.     

Metallic Characterization of Foundry By-Products per Waste Streams and Leaching Protocols

In the United States, foundry facilities produce huge quantities of by-products to be disposed of annually. These by-products are broadly divided into three waste streams: sand, dust, and slag. To characterize foundry by-products in terms of waste streams helps beneficially manage and reuse foundry by-products based on individual environmental characteristics. One thousand one hundred eighty two data sets addressing bulk and leaching characterization of up to 24 metallic elements in sand, dust, and slag are collected and assessed using statistical methodologies. Findings indicate that sand is not hazardous with high confidence per metallic elements, and a leaching program is not mandatory in assessing whether sand is hazardous or not regarding metallic elements. No evidence indicates that dust and slag are nonhazardous materials. Only a fraction of metallic elements are extracted from as-received waste streams. Through comparisons of statistical parameters including estimated means, 95th percentiles and data distributions, sand is found less contaminated by most metallic elements than dust and slag, but metallic elements in sand leachate are in the similar levels as those in dust and slag leachates. Fe, Zn, and Al are highly concentrated in dust and slag on average, which suggests their potential reclamations.     

我国工业危险废物产生现状及产量预测

根据1998～2004年工业危险废物的产生量和贮存量的统计数据,分析了我国工业危险废物产生和流向现状以及行业和地域分布特点,同时建立GM模型对未来工业危险废物产生的动态变化进行预测。研究结果表明:我国工业危险废物的产生量有逐年上升的趋势,预测到2015年工业危险废物需处理量将达到2709×104t,建议我国应前瞻性地扩建或新建工业危险废物处理设施,同时现有处理模式和工艺单一,在处理设施建设中优先考虑采用多功能综合处理厂建设。     

我国工业危险废物产生现状及产量预测

根据1998-2004年工业危险废物的产生量和贮存量的统计数据，分析了我国工业危险废物产生和流向现状以及行业和地域分布特点，同时建立GM模型对未来工业危险废物产生的动态变化进行预测。研究结果表明：我国工业危险废物的产生量有逐年上升的趋势，预测到2015年工业危险废物需处理量将达到2709×10^4t，建议我国应前瞻性地扩建或新建工业危险废物处理设施，同时现有处理模式和工艺单一，在处理设施建设中优先考虑采用多功能综合处理厂建设。     

Approval of new drugs in the United States. Comparison with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan

In a study reported herein, the marketing approval dates of 214 drugs newly introduced into the world market from January 1990 through December 1994 were compared in 4 countries. The analysis reveals that the United States and the United Kingdom have similar patterns of drug availability, although the United States has a number of therapies with significant public health benefits that are not yet available in the United Kingdom. The findings also show that the United States outpaces both Germany and Japan in approving important new drugs. Various strategies adopted by the Food and Drug Administration to expedite its pharmaceutical review process, including the use of industry user fees, are described.     

Hazardous waste: its impact on human health in Europe

Hazardous waste management is of great concern to the nations of Europe. The European public, like that in North America, expresses great concern that hazardous waste is impacting individual health and degrades the environment. The level of resources and degree of hazardous waste problems varies widely throughout Europe. In particular, the Central and Eastern European countries face enormous challenges in trying to solve their waste problems. Progress in managing the hazardous waste burden is evident in Europe, but cooperation across the nations of Europe will be essential to assure success.     

The greening of materials science and engineering

The field of materials science and engineering is advancing at a revolutionary pace. It is now generally recognized as being among the key emerging technological fields propelling our world societies into the twenty-first century. The driving forces for this revolutionary pace are at once social, economic, political, and technological. For example, relatively recent changes in United States federal policies in environmental control, hazardous waste management, and energy conservation along with heightened international trade competition have resulted in major changes in material processing and use patterns. These changing patterns are creating new requirements for material developments, substitutions, and associated processes. This paper traces the emergence of materials policy and technological developments through four sub-periods of history: the birth and development of engineering in the United States (1825–1900), the evolution of a national research infrastructure (1900–1945), the evolution of a national science policy (1945–1973), and the intensification of global interdependency (1973-present). Future trends in materials developments and future policy requirements are outlined.     

Human onchocerciasis in Africa

In the United States, the traditional public utilities, power and telecommunications, along with health care, are being deregulated and becoming increasingly competitive, especially on price. Regulation of the public utilities has occurred for the past century not simply because they have been monopolies, but, more importantly, because they are "industries affected with the public interest," that is industries which: 1. provide an essential service, 2. benefit from public prequisites, and 3. would cause great public harm if mismanaged. Consequently, the presence of competition in these industries does not negate the need for regulation. Regulation of these industries is best understood as being along the three sides of a "triangle of public interests"--quality, public accountability, and universal service. Examples are provided of these types of regulation in power and telecommunications, even in current "deregulatory" legislation. Health care reform activists in the United States have lately paid attention mostly to the first two legs of the triangle; they are encouraged to focus creatively on the third leg--universal health care.     

Ageism, psychology, and public policy.

Chronological age—either young or old—may be the basis for prejudicial attitudes, discriminatory practices, and institutional policies. The importance and role of ageism differs greatly between societies, such as the United States and Japan. Psychological research has documented a variety of examples of negative attitudes toward older people in the United States, but these results may reflect the methods used or may indicate a preference for age similarity rather than prejudice against the aged. Vulnerability to ageism in old age is associated demographically with being a woman, living alone, and having a poor health status. Discriminatory attitudes, mental health services, and employment policies are examples of the interface of ageism and psychology. Ageism may be reduced by emphasizing diversity among older people, paying attention to compensations for reduced abilities, and developing public policy based on need rather than on age. The importance of ageism as a psychological issue must be recognized and included in the public debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)