Chlorinated Solvents

Chlorinated Solvents
Author: Robert D Morrison
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2015-11-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1782626077

Environmental forensics is emerging and evolving into a recognized scientific discipline with numerous applications, especially regarding chlorinated solvents. This unique book provides the reader with a concise compilation of information regarding the use of environmental forensic techniques for age dating and identification of the source of a chlorinated solvent release. Concentrating on the five commonly encountered chlorinated solvents (perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and CFC-113), forensic opportunities applicable to each are presented including the use of stabilizers, manufacturing impurities, surrogate chemicals and physical measurements and degradation products as diagnostic indicators. Detailed historical chronology of the applications of the solvents and specific chapters devoted to dry cleaning and vapor degreasing equipment are included as are generic forensic approaches. Forming a basis for further ideas in the evolution of environmental forensic techniques, Chlorinated Solvents will be an indispensable reference tool for researchers, regulators and analysts in the field.

The Road to Love Canal

The Road to Love Canal
Author: Craig E. Colten
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2010-06-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0292789734

The toxic legacy of Love Canal vividly brought the crisis in industrial waste disposal to public awareness across the United States and led to the passage of the Superfund legislation in 1980. To discover why disasters like Love Canal have occurred and whether they could have been averted with knowledge available to waste managers of the time, this book examines industrial waste disposal before the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Colten and Skinner build their study around three key questions. First, what was known before 1970 about the hazards of certain industrial wastes and their potential for causing public health problems? Second, what were the technical capabilities for treating or containing wastes during that time? And third, what factors other than technical knowledge guided the actions of waste managers before the enactment of explicit federal laws? The authors find that significant information about the hazards of industrial wastes existed before 1970. Their explanations of why this knowledge did not prevent the toxic legacy now facing us will be essential reading for environmental historians and lawyers, public health personnel, and concerned citizens.

Toxic Injustice

Toxic Injustice
Author: Susanna Rankin Bohme
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520278992

The pesticide dibromochloropropane, known as DBCP, was developed by the chemical companies Dow and Shell in the 1950s to target wormlike, soil-dwelling creatures called nematodes. Despite signs that the chemical was dangerous, it was widely used in U.S. agriculture and on Chiquita and Dole banana plantations in Central America. In the late 1970s, DBCP was linked to male sterility, but an uneven regulatory process left many workers—especially on Dole’s banana farms—exposed for years after health risks were known. Susanna Rankin Bohme tells an intriguing, multilayered history that spans fifty years, highlighting the transnational reach of corporations and social justice movements. Toxic Injustice links health inequalities and worker struggles as it charts how people excluded from workplace and legal protections have found ways to challenge power structures and seek justice from states and transnational corporations alike.

Inevitably Toxic

Inevitably Toxic
Author: Brinda Sarathy
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2018-10-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 082298623X

Not a day goes by that humans aren’t exposed to toxins in our environment—be it at home, in the car, or workplace. But what about those toxic places and items that aren’t marked? Why are we warned about some toxic spaces' substances and not others? The essays in Inevitably Toxic consider the exposure of bodies in the United States, Canada and Japan to radiation, industrial waste, and pesticides. Research shows that appeals to uncertainty have led to social inaction even when evidence, e.g. the link between carbon emissions and global warming, stares us in the face. In some cases, influential scientists, engineers and doctors have deliberately "manufactured doubt" and uncertainty but as the essays in this collection show, there is often no deliberate deception. We tend to think that if we can’t see contamination and experts deem it safe, then we are okay. Yet, having knowledge about the uncertainty behind expert claims can awaken us from a false sense of security and alert us to decisions and practices that may in fact cause harm. In the epilogue, Hamilton and Sarathy interview Peter Galison, a prominent historian of science whose recent work explores the complex challenge of long term nuclear waste storage.

American Environmentalism

American Environmentalism
Author: Riley E. Dunlap
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1317758811

First published in 1992. Hailed as required reading for environmental sociologist and social movements, this book is written as a scholarly work and from a social science perspective; and is an ideal textbook for environmental courses.

A Trust Betrayed

A Trust Betrayed
Author: Mike Magner
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2014-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 030682258X

While the big bad corporation has often been the offender in many of the world's greatest environmental disasters, in the case of the mass poisoning at Camp Lejeune the culprit is a revered institution: the US Marine Corps. For two decades now, revelations have steadily emerged about pervasive contamination, associated clusters of illness and death among the Marine families stationed there, and military stonewalling and failure to act. Mike Magner's chilling investigation creates a suspenseful narrative from the individual stories, scientific evidence, and smoldering sense of betrayal among those whose motto is undying fidelity. He also raises far-reaching and ominous questions about widespread contamination on US military bases worldwide.