Environmental scientists, public

Careful research has weakened assertions that environmental chemicals are endocrine disruptors and major causes of cancer. Environmental organizations still tout the risks to raise the public s awareness—they say—and to solicit contributions. Government officials, in charge of programs to investigate the risks, continue to provide funds to scientists who look for evidence to support the assertions and to programs that test chemicals for effects that have little, at best, and more likely, no, relationship to human health. Environmental organizations publicity and gov-... 

Data from biomonitoring studies are becoming widely available and are increasingly used to understand the presence of chemicals in the human body and their effects on human health. At the same time, scientists, public-health officials, and the public have questions about the quality and scope of the available data, what the data tell us about potential risks to human health, and how future research can address these questions. Responding to a congressional request, the National Research Council established the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants to review current practices in and recommend ways to improve the interpretation and uses of human biomonitoring for environmental toxicants. 

Ra (half-life = 1602 years) is a naturally occurring radioisotope of the 238U decay series. Earth, marine, and environmental scientists often require analysis of 226Ra in natural water because of public health concerns18 and because it has proved to be a useful tracer of geochemical processes,... 

Facilitate identification, evaluation, resolution, and communication of environmental problems and issues among SETAC members, and the global community of environmental scientists, engineers, and the general public. 

Dorfman, Mark is an environmental scientist working in the public interest sector since 1987 to promote pollution prevention strategies, particularly in the chemical industry. He has authored or co-authored ten sustainability reports ranging from chemical industry case studies to national water pollution report cards. Through a... 

An important question that needs to be resolved in each jurisdiction is whether EIAs should be undertaken by the proponents (whether they be in the public or in the private sector), by an independent body, or by a small team drawn from proponents, environmental scientists, and representatives of those with whom decisions rest. 

Activation analysis has become an important technique for the environmental biologist as well as for others. By means of bombardment with neutrons, high-energy photons, or charged particles, stable elements can be transformed to radionuclides. These radionuclides can be measured relatively easily, and the results can be interpreted in terms of die type and quantity of stable elements present in the sample of interest. Although several types of bombardment may be used to transform stable elements to radionuclides, slow neutrons are usually employed. Details concerning the procedure are described in many sources (e.g., Schulze, 1969 Hendee, 1973b). In addition, publications of direct interest to the environmental scientist are fairly numerous (Leddicotte, 1969 Byrne et aL, 1971 Pillay and Thomas, 1971 Filby and Shah, 1974). 

Environmental scientists monitor environmental pollution to protect the health of the public. By using specialized equipment, environmental scientists... 

Environmental scientists such as those involved in performance assessment (e.g., for nuclear repositories) would be pleased to be able to predict the interactions of solutes (e.g., radionuclides) with backfill and geologic materials. However, in this area, which in many countries receives much public attention, even the aqueous solution equilibria for the pertaining conditions of a favored repository concept cannot be accurately described (e.g., metal ions in brine solutions, which require Pitzer formalism, or in highly alkaline backfill pore waters, which have traditionally not received much attention in aqueous solution studies because of the limitations of glass electrodes and solid phase formation). Databases for surface complexation applications are also required for many other purposes, but the major drawback of such potential databases is that no agreement exists on the actual surface complexation model to be used. This may ultimately lead to particular difficult situations whenever one of the following occur ... 

---