Chemical Concepts in Pollutant Behaviour (Environmental Science and Technology Series) - Tapa dura

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About the author IAN J. TINSLEY is Professor of Chemistry at Oregon State University as well as Associate Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center. Dr. Tinsley received his Ph.D. in Food Science/Biochemistry from Oregon State University in 1958.

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Chemicals are continuously released into the environment. Whether its done intentionallyas in the case of pesticide application or disposal in a landfillor unintentionally during a tank car accident or spill, there are numerous possibilities to consider. Will they evaporate into the atmosphere, or leach into surface water, or be immobilized by strong adsorption to soil? How long will they persist in the environment? Can they be transformed into other compounds? How readily might they be absorbed by and possibly concentrate in animals? This book identifies chemical properties that determine environmental behavior, describes the processes in the natural environment that can be effective in transforming chemicals, and defines the molecular characteristics that can cause a particular compound to react in those processes. Unique in approach, the book synthesizes basic ideas from numerous fields of chemistry to solve the question of how a given chemical will distribute in the environment and its potential to be changed. It is an ideal text for interdisciplinary environmental courses. Chemical Concepts in Pollutant Behavior:

• Illustrates how the chemical properties of a compound affect its distribution in the environment
• Describes the major breakdown processes that are active in the environment and considers the potential for different compounds to react in these processes
• Reviews the rates at which these transformations occurproviding a basis for predicting the rate at which a compound might be transformed as well as the products of the transformation
• Discusses the influence of chemical properties on the potential to accumulate in organisms and distribute in food chains
• Provides information for evaluating the reliability of data when analyzing "environmental samples"
• Examines specific problems to illustrate how the different concepts are integrated
• Contains numerous tables, figures, and references as well as a comprehensive bibliography