Environment environmental fate

The environmental fate of chemicals describes the processes by which chemicals move and are transformed into the environment. Environmental fate processes that should be addressed include persistence in air, water and soil reactivity and degradation migration in groundwater removal from effluents by standard waste-water treatment methods and bioaccumulation in aquatic or terrestrial organisms. 

The fate of a chemical in the environment— "environmental fate"—is strongly determined by its rate of degradation (defined as persistence) and its tendency to accumulate in tissues and organs (bioaccumulation). The physical/chemical properties of concern in the Green Screen are flammability and explodability. 

H. B. Lockhart, Jr., The Environmental Fate of Silver Discharged to the Environment by the Photographic Industry Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1980. 

Environmental Fate. Most of the MEK released to the environment will end up in the atmosphere. MEK can contribute to the formation of air pollutants in the lower atmosphere. It can be degraded by microorganisms living in water and soil. 

The environmental fate of DATS has been the subject of extensive research efforts. The results from these studies show that DATS is mineralized in aquatic environments and in soils at rates sufficient to prevent accumulation [23-25]. 

In Chapter 3, the distribution of enviromnental chemicals through compartments of the gross environment was related to the chemical factors and processes involved, and models for describing or predicting environmental fate were considered. In the early sections of the present chapter, the discnssion moves on to the more complex question of movement and distribntion in the living environment— within individuals, communities, and ecosystems—where biological as well as physical and chemical factors come into play. The movement of chemicals along food chains and the fate of chemicals in the complex communities of sediments and soils are basic issues here. 

The environmental fate and behavior of compounds depends on their physical, chemical, and biochemical properties. Individual OPs differ considerably from one another in their properties and, consequently, in their environmental behavior and the way they are used as pesticides. Pesticide chemists and formulators have been able to exploit the properties of individual OPs in order to achieve more effective and more environment-friendly pest control, for example, in the development of compounds like chlorfenviphos, which has enough stability and a sufficiently low vapor pressure to be effective as an insecticidal seed dressing, but, like other OPs, is readily biodegradable thus, it was introduced as a more environment-friendly alternative to persistent OCs as a seed dressing. 

Garrison AW, MG Cippolone, NL Wolfe, RR Swank (1995) Environmental fate of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl. Environ Toxicol Chem 14 1859-1864. 

An appropriate mineral medium supplemented with the organic compound that is to be studied is inoculated with a sample of water, soil, or sediment. In studies of the environmental fate of a xenobiotic in a specific ecosystem, samples are generally taken from the area putatively contaminated with the given compound so that a degree of environmental relevance is automatically incorporated. Attention has, in addition been directed to pristine environments, and the issues of adaptation or preexposure have already been discussed. 

Saski EK, JK Jokela, MS Salkinoja-Salonen (1996a) Biodegradability of different size classes of bleached kraft mill effluent organic halogens during wastewater treatment and in lake environments. In Environmental Fate and Effects of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents (Eds MR Servos, KR Munlittrick, JH Carey, and GJ van der Kraak), pp. 179-193. St Lucie Press, Delray Beach, FL. 

Willett KL, EM Ulrich, RA Hites (1998) Differential toxicity and environmental fates of hexachlorocyclohex-ane isomers. Environ Sci Technol 32 2197-2207. 

The EPA s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics developed Chemical Fact sheets to summarize information on a particular chemical including exposure, environment and human health hazard, environmental fate, regulatory information, and whom to contact for additional information. 

As probabilistic exposure and risk assessment methods are developed and become more frequently used for environmental fate and effects assessment, OPP increasingly needs distributions of environmental fate values rather than single point estimates, and quantitation of error and uncertainty in measurements. Probabilistic models currently being developed by the OPP require distributions of environmental fate and effects parameters either by measurement, extrapolation or a combination of the two. The models predictions will allow regulators to base decisions on the likelihood and magnitude of exposure and effects for a range of conditions which vary both spatially and temporally, rather than in a specific environment under static conditions. This increased need for basic data on environmental fate may increase data collection and drive development of less costly and more precise analytical methods. 

Larson, R.J. Role of biodegradation kinetics in predicting environmental fate, in Biotransformation and Fate of Chemicals in the Aquatic Environment, Maki, A.W., Dickson, K.L., and Cairns, J., Jr, Eds., American Society of Microbiology, Washington, 1980, pp. 67-86. 

The need to balance costs against benefits both in the public and private sectors resulted in a search for methods of predicting the fate and effects of chemicals in the environment. Actual field testing of all cases of interest is both too costly and too dangerous to perform. Mathematical models, therefore, have been developed to provide descriptive tools and predictive approaches to this problem. At the symposium on which this book is based, a collection of user-oriented information was presented and covered the following aspects of environmental fate modeling ... 

Environmental Fate. Having characterized the entry of materials into the environment, we move into the second step of our procedure. The goal at this stage of analysis is to define ambient concentration of the material or its products in areas of concern for receptor (e.g., people, materials or ecosystem components) exposure. A family of computer simulation models has been developed for calculating the ambient levels of a... 

With any environmental risk assessment of a chemical, there are three factors 1) The environmental fate of a chemical and 2) the exposure to and 3) the toxicity of the chemical to organisms inhabiting the environment in question. 

Reinert, J. L., "Estimating the Maximum Concentration of Pesticides in the Environment as a Consequence of Specific Events" October 1, 1980, Environmental Fate Branch, U.S. EPA. 

Lead is dispersed throughout the environment primarily as the result of anthropogenic activities. Environmental fate processes may transform one lead compound to another however, lead is not degraded and is still available for human exposure, even though the compounds containing it vary enormously. 

This last outcome was the starting point for the work to be done during the second part of the project. At this point, the different work packages focused on their topics, that is, in environmental fate, toxicology, risk assessment, life cycle assessment, and socioeconomic issues. The objective was to apply the different methodologies related to these fields of knowledge to the selected substances in order to assess the potential risk that they can pose to the human health and the environment. 

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