Environmental impact organic pollutants

The growing concerns about the public health and environmental impacts of pesticides have led many in the general public and the government to question whether all the benefits of pesticides, such as the perfect red apple, are worth the associated costs of environmental pollution, human illness and loss of life, bird kills, and the destruction of other beneficial natural organisms. Indeed, some agriculturists have been viewed as primarily concerned with promoting commercial interests rather than protecting public health and the environment. 

Dec J, Bollag J-M, Huang PM, Senesi N (2002) Impact of interactions between microorganisms and soil colloids on transformation of organic pollutants. In Huang PM, Bollag J-M, Senesi N (eds) Interactions between soil particles and microorganisms. Impact on Terrestrial Ecosystem, vol 8, IUPAC Series of Analytical and Physical Chemistry of Environmental Systems, Wiley, Chichester, UK, pp 323-378... 

The main objectives of this chapter are to (1) review the different modeling techniques used for sorption/desorption processes of organic pollutants with various solid phases, (2) discuss the kinetics of such processes with some insight into the interpretation of kinetic data, (3) describe the different sorption/ desorption experimental techniques, with estimates of the transport parameters from the data of laboratory tests, (4) discuss a recently reported issue regarding slow sorption/desorption behavior of organic pollutants, and finally (5) present a case study about the environmental impact of solid waste materials/complex... 

Young DR, Gossett RW, Baird RB, et al. 1981. Wastewater inputs and marine bioaccumulation of priority pollutant organics off Southern California. In Jolley RW, Brungs WA, Cotmvo JA, et al., eds. Water chlorination environmental impact and health effects, Vol. 4, Book 2. Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor Science 871-884. 

In recent years, concern for the environmental impact of discharges from industrial and energy processes to air, water, and land receptors has expanded far beyond the traditional lists of a few selected pollutants. This has given rise to the concept of a comprehensive characterization of all materials released to the environment, and the phrase environmental assessment has been added to the vocabulary of many organizations. The four major components of an environmental assessment, as used by our group, are as follows [1]... 

Senesi, N., and Miano,T. M. (1995).The role of abiotic interactions with humic substances on the environmental impact of organic pollutants. In Environmental Impact of Soil Component Interactions Land Quality, Natural and Anthropogenic Organics, Vol. 1, Huang, P. M., Berthelin, J., Bollag, J. M., and McGill, W. B., eds., CRC-Lewis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 311-335. 

Oxidation/hydroxylation of aromatic compounds by OH and HOONO is expected to enhance their degradation rate and hence decrease their lifetime on particulate matter, which in the case of pollutants is beneficial from the point of view of human health. Oxidation of PAHs could also lead to the production of photosensitizers such as quinones and aromatic carbonyls [10, 40, 41]. These compounds, if present in the gas phase, are also able to form aggregates and are therefore involved in the formation of secondary organic aerosol [42]. In contrast, nitration induced by OH + N02 or HOONO could lead to highly mutagenic nitro-PAHs [43] or phytotoxic nitrophenols [44, 45], in which case the health and environmental impact of the reaction intermediates is not negligible and is sometimes higher than that of the parent molecules. 

Very significant photochemical processes can take place in various environmental compartments and account for the transformation of organic and inorganic compounds, including pollutants released by human activities. In many cases pollutant transformation is beneficial to the environment and to human health because it decreases the lifetime and hence the possible impact of harmful compounds. However, in some cases the environmental transformation of pollutants and of some otherwise harmless xenobiotics can yield compounds having much higher impact than the parent compounds (e.g., the case of carbamazepine transformation into acridine). It is therefore very important to assess the transformation pathways, including the photochemical ones, of compounds naturally present in the environment or released by human activities. 

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