Environmental behaviour

Copin, A. (ed.) (1995) Environmental Behaviour of Pesticides and Regulatory Aspects, Royal Society of Chemistry, London. 

Itzhak, D., Internal reports related to the environmental behaviour of tantalum in the bromine company production plants. Bromine Comp. Ltd., Israel (1990)... 

Some characteristic physical properties of PBDD/F have been determined and can be found elsewhere 8-14. An important property for environmental behaviour is the vapour pressure. Vapour pressures of some PBDD has been measured by a special new technique 30. pig. 12 shows extrapolated vapour pressures of PCDD and PCDF and of corresponding PBDD and PBDF. 

The environmental behaviour of organotins is strongly influeneed by partition eoeffieients. Based upon the water solubihty and vapour pressure data, BUSES estimates the dimensionless Henry s law eonstant (the air/water partition eoeffieient). As indieated in Table 1, there is a wide variability in the air/water partition eoeffieients for the six substanees. 

Wania F, Hoff JT, Jia CQ, et al. 1998. The effects of snow and ice on the environmental behaviour of hydrophobic organic chemicals. Environ Pollut 102 25-41. 

FukaiR, Murray CN (1973) Environmental behaviour of radiocobalt and radiosilver released from nuclear power stations into aquatic systems. In Environmental behaviour of radionuclides released in the nuclear industry. IAEA, Vienna pp 217-242... 

As is often the case in CND generating materials (or in low-acid generating potential materials), the detected metal levels in leachates were generally low, in the order of thousandths to hundredths of mg/L. In fact, the Ni concentrations obtained from the fresh waste rocks are often under the detection limit of the ICP-AES employed (0.004 mg/L). For greater appreciation of the environmental behaviour of the different studied waste rocks, particularly to differentiate the geochemical behaviour of fresh and weathered waste rocks, the release rates were calculated. 

The geochemical and mineralogical properties of the ochre-precipitates are provided in order to demonstrate their ability to concentrate arsenic and metals from the mine water. Additionally, data may support management decisions, regarding disposal or recovery of the wastes, taking into account of their environmental behaviour. 

Buser, H.-R., Poiger, T. and Muller, M. D. (1999). Occurrence and environmental behaviour of the chiral pharmaceutical ibuprofen in surface waters and in waste-water, Environ. Sci. Technol., 33, 2529-2535. 

The environmental behaviour of LAS, as one of the most widely-used xenobiotic organic compounds, has aroused considerable interest and study. As a result, it has been determined that, under certain conditions, LAS compounds are completely biodegradable however, in the marine environment their degradation is known to be slower. The presence of metabolites of the anionic LAS surfactants, the long and short chain SPC derivatives, in the aqueous environment is well known, and as such these degradation intermediates needed to be monitored (and tested for their toxic effects). 

Thus, reviews on trace analysis and environmental behaviour of APEO [43,46,72] and toxicity [66], analytical methods [73], occurrence [74] and persistence [75] of NP metabolites in the aquatic environment have been published. GC and GC-MS are the methods of choice for the analysis of environmental matrices containing APEO oligomers with six or less EO units. 

It is quite obvious that the structural variety implies differences in chromatographic as well as environmental behaviour of many isomers. Highly branched isomers are more poorly degradable [124], have higher... 

The recent use of HPLC for the analysis of sulfophenyl carboxylates (SPCs) has been one of the most interesting applications of this technique for the study of the environmental behaviour of anionic surfactants. SPCs are separated by reversed-phase ion-paired chromatography, in which a hydrophobic stationary phase is used and the mobile phase is eluted with aqueous buffers containing a low concentration of the counter-ion [19]. 

Although a substantial body of data is available on the levels of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LASs) in rivers and estuaries, fewer studies have been conducted on their environmental behaviour, with reference to the mechanisms involved in their transport and to the reactivity they undergo. Studies of LAS in subterranean water and in the marine medium are scarce and have mainly been conducted in the last decade [2-6], coinciding with the development of new techniques of concentration/separation and analysis of LAS at ppb levels or less. Data on concentrations of sulfophenyl carboxylates (SPCs) are very scarce and the behaviour of these intermediates has hardly received any study. This chapter provides an overview of the current knowledge on behaviour of LAS and their degradation products in coastal environments. 

One aspect to be addressed in order to obtain a realistic vision of the toxicity of these kinds of compounds is their environmental behaviour. Surfactants tend to be adsorbed on particulate matter and thus subsequently to sediment. Consequently, the highest surfactant concentrations are found in sediments, although their distribution is dependent on the partitioning equilibrium between the substrate and interstitial water. This results in two possible routes for uptake (bioaccumulation) and effect. The relative importance of each of these routes depends on the special habits of each benthic organism. 

Squillace, P. J., J. F. Pankow, N. E. Korte, and J. S. Zogorski, Review of the Environmental Behaviour and Fate of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether, Environ. Toxicol. Chem., 16, 1836-1844 (1997). 

Environmental behaviour of carbon nanostructures is extremely difficult to predict because they contain on their surface a number of adsorbed substances such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which are known carcinogenic substances. Carbon nanoparticles generated by combustion processes, in particular from cigarette smoke contain thousands of different chemicals, which may be toxic to living species [16],... 

Burkhard, N., D.O. Eberle, and J.A. Guth (1975). Model systems for studying the environmental behaviour of pesticides. In F. Coulston and F. Korte, eds., Environmental Quality and Safety, Suppl. Vol. III. New York, NY Academic Press, pp. 203-212. 

CFs) has been used from the earliest times as methods for predicting the environmental behaviour of radionuclides. The distribution ratio is defined as... 

In 1973, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) conducted an intensive investigation into its research efforts relating to the development of nuclear power. The conclusion reached by the environmental team was that the environmental behaviour and long-term fate of the transuranium elements had not been addressed in an effective way. This conclusion prompted the USAEC to develop an investigative programme. Some important landmarks in the environmental research which led to the eventual separation and determination of the plutonium oxidation states in the aquatic environment were ... 

In earlier discussions, only the influence of the larger suspended particulate material (>0.45 pm) on the environmental behaviour of radionuclides has been addressed. But the size range of particles present in environmental water extends downwards through the colloidal range and large complex molecules to those components in true solution. 

A second obvious line of research for the future must be that related to the development and improvement of computer-based simulation of long-term environmental behaviour of radionuclides. Most currently available models are still comparatively simple compared with the physical, chemical and biological complexity of environments they purport to represent but, as noted in Section 13.5, our ability to construct ever more complex conceptual models for predicting the future behaviour of radionuclides is improving. However, the more complex the model, the more demands it places on the basic thermodynamic data and knowledge of likely speciation. The challenge for the future will therefore be to produce high-quality data for model construction and to devise realistic ways to validate those models once produced. 

Techniques and approaches to the study of the distribution of chemical species of metals and metalloids in biological materials after sample preparation are similar to those already described for other matrices in this book, and in a recent review by Lobinski (1997). The application of these methods has led to a greater understanding of the role of metals and metalloids in biological systems. Some of the new developments in understanding the environmental behaviour of antimony, arsenic, selenium and tin are reviewed. 

Mackay, D., Paterson, S., Chung, B., Neely, W. B. (1985) Evaluation of the environmental behaviour of chemicals with level HI fugacity model. Chemosphere 13, 335-374. 

Klaine SJ, Richards P, Baker D, Naddy R, Brown T, Joab B, Casey R, Fernandez D, Over-meyer J, Benjamin R. 1997. Agrochemical fate and effects in terrestrial, aquatic and estuarine ecosystems. Environmental Behaviour of Crop Protection Chemicals Proceedings of an international symposium on the use of nuclear and related techniques for studying the behaviour of crop protection chemicals. Vienna (Austria) International Atomic Energy Agency, p 247-263. 

Of more relevance to the uptake of radionuclides by plants is the question of discrimination between radionuclides and their nutrient analogues. Indeed, the question of whether the physiological mechanisms of ion uptake within the root can discriminate between the radioion and its analogue has been central to the elucidation of the environmental behaviour of 137Cs and Sr since the late 1950s. Comar et al. (1957) devised a measure of the degree of discrimination by plants between strontium and calcium which they termed the observed ratio (OR), defined as ... 

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) have over the last 15 years been the subject of intense environmental chemistry research. This interest is rooted in the persistence and hydrophobicity of these compounds, which impart to them a strong tendency to bioaccumulate. This, coupled with the fact that a number of PCDD/Fs have been found to be toxic at very low concentrations, has fuelled interest in understanding their behaviour in the environment. One crucial component of the environmental behaviour is the biological uptake and transfer of PCDD/Fs, since this determines the exposure of biota to these compounds. 

Such simple procedures, however, cost a lot of money. To obtain a single toxicity figure, for example, many tests need to be conducted to answer questions of interest such as Does this chemical cause cancer Does this chemical cause malformation and so forth. In fact, more than 20 animal toxicity tests are needed to answer such questions and obtain a toxicity figure. This could cost approximately USD 15 million. Similarly, to obtain a single exposure figure, the tests on residue analysis and environmental behaviour can cost up to USD 5 million. To examine the toxicity of natural organisms usually three aquatic species are tested as representatives of the water environment fish, water flea, and algae. For terrestrial species, earthworms, honey bees, and birds are tested. For these tests, approximately USD 1 million is needed. 

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