The Environmental and Health Impact

Lead and sulphuric acid are dangerous substances for both the environment and human health. 

The reference dose (RfD) for chronic exposure - inhalation or ingestion - has been set at 0.0035 mgPb/Kg/day. RfD means the daily maximum dose allowed without measurable effects on human health. There is a vast literature on the damage caused by exposure to lead. Hereafter the main adverse effects are mentioned. 

People dealing with lead are obviously more exp)Osed than others, even if measures are taken to minimise the risk. The lead level in the blood of these workers is periodically checked and, if 60 pg/lOOml of blood are exceeded, they must leave the department or even the job. 

Sulphuric acid is a very uncommon component of industrial products sold on the market, although some quantity of it can be found in some industrial residues fi-om which is recovered, whenever possible. The sole, widespread products carrying significant quantity of acid are the lead/acid accumulators to avoid acid dispersion in the environment it is necessary their recycling. 

Every year, large volumes of new accumulators are put in the market to replace equivalent volumes of spent batteries. As an accumulator contains 25% by weight of an electrolyte solution at 15% sulphuric acid, the quantity that could be dispersed in the environment is very high. 

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Aerosol concentrations and size distributions can be investigated remotely using sun-photometry. Characterization of volcanic aerosol is important in smdies of plume chemistry, atmospheric radiation, and the environmental and health impacts of particle emissions. Watson and Oppenheimer (2000, 2001) used a portable sun-photometer to observe tropospheric aerosol emitted by Mt. Etna. They found distinct aerosol optical signatures for the several plumes emitted from Etna s different summit craters, and apparent coagulation of particles as the plume aged. More recently. Porter et al. (2002) have obtained sun-photometer and pulsed lidar data for the plume from Pu u O o vent on Kilauea, Hawaii, from a moving vehicle in order to build profiles of sulfate concentration. 

To assess both the environmental and health impacts of biomass burning, information is needed on the gaseous and particulate emissions produced during the fire and released into the atmosphere. The calculation of gaseous emissions from vegetation and peat fires can be calculated using a form of an expression from Seiler and Crutzen (1980) for each burning ecosystem/ terrain ... 

Nanomaterials are of varying chemical complexity (bulk and surface), size, shape, and phase (see Fig. 21.1 Reference 13). Therefore, there exist large challenges in understanding the environmental health and safety of nanomaterials and tmly interdisciplinary efforts are needed. This chapter reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the research on the environmental and health impacts of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The research discussed in this chapter represents a compilation of some of the most recent studies and the current state of the science of the environmental and health impacts of nanoscience and nanotechnology. 

Request for Grant Proposals, EPA-OPEI-0704 Reducing the Environmental and Health Impacts of School Siting. 

Adeola, E O. Boon or Bane. The Environmental and Health Impacts of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Human Ecolopfy Review 11 (2004) 27-35. 

The safety of the CNT membrane is an important issue to be resolved. Concerns have been raised about the environmental and health impacts of CNT particles that may be released from CNT membranes during operation [22,23]. However, there is little chance that CNT membranes will be able to pass through a wholly integrated membrane element. After much effort for regulating nanomaterials, no safety guidelines for the use of CNT membranes in the water purification process have been adopted so far. Thus, an interdisciplinary approach should be used to establish a policy for CNT membrane technology. 

All of the conditions for an efficient market are being studied in different subbranches of economics. Environmental and health impacts are examples of the violation of the condition no external effects which is an area studied mainly by environmental economists. In other words, environmental problems are to an economist considered as a market failure, or more precisely a negative externality. 

It is reported that the UK Department of the Environment, Transport The Regions (the DETR) has announced an innovative study to compare environmental and health impacts of PVC and alternative building and packaging materials. The research will take a year and will be carried out by consultancies Entec and Ecobalance. Details are given. 

In the course of the review of the EU Fuel Quality Directive (2003/17/EC), petrol and diesel specifications are being reviewed, to lower their environmental and health impact, as well as to take into account new EU-wide targets on biofuels and greenhouse-gas emissions reduction. 

Researchers are working to produce recombinant proteins from viruses in plants so that the leaves, fruit, or root (such as potatoes) would be edible forms of vaccine. A vaccine that is eaten may be more appealing and suitable than injections, particularly in poor parts of world with limited access to skilled health-care professionals. But there are barriers to the development of plant vaccines. First, there are technical issues. For example, would conditions within the stomach allow the immune system to respond to the protein to provide protection Additionally, some people are concerned about the environmental and health risks of growing vaccine-producing plants in fields. Could the food be safely processed and shipped While the development of plant-based vaccines has been a research success since first reported in 1992, it remains uncertain whether this form of biotechnology will eventually have a major impact on public health. 

Danesi et al.96 applied SIMS, in addition to X-ray fluorescence imaging, by using a microbeam (p-XRF) and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analyzer (SEM-EDXRF) to characterize soil samples and to identify small DU particles collected in Kosovo locations where depleted uranium (DU) ammunition was employed during the 1999 Balkan conflict. Knowledge of DU particles is needed as a basis for the assessment of the potential environmental and health impacts of military use of DU, since it provides information on possible resuspension and inhalation. The measurements indicated spots where hundreds of thousands of particles may be present in a few mg of contaminated soil. The particle size distribution showed that most of the DU particles were < 5 pm in diameter and more than 50 % of the particles had a diameter of < 1.5 p.m.96... 

A product lifecycle ranges from resource extraction through manufacture to use and final waste disposal or processing. Under the current EU chemical risk assessment procedure, lifecycle thinking considers the risks at each stage of a substance s lifecycle, with the possible summation of multiple sources of exposures to a single substance [144], LCA that quantitatively evaluate the overall environmental and health impacts of processes, services or products can complement risk assessment as a useful decision-support tool for chemical risk management [183, 188, 536]. 

The assumptions that the future transition will be driven by fair market rules are somewhat at variance with the present situation. On one hand, there are hidden subsidies in many regions (e.g., to fossil and nuclear energy, where society pays for environmental and health impacts and assumes the responsibility for risk-related events), and on the other hand, monopolies and generally differences in size and power of the energy industries involved in different technologies make the actual price setting likely not to follow those prescribed by the life-cycle analysis in a fair market philosophy. 

Oil shale and coal conversion technologies are presently in a stage of rapid development. Analysis of materials involved in these processes is an important part of the investigation of possible environmental and health impacts of the processes. High precision analyses are desirable even in those cases where sampling uncertainties are relatively large, so that the analytical procedures will not add appreciably to the overall error. 

The environmental impact of coal combustion has been of concern for nearly one thousand years. In the thirteenth century, complaints were raised in London about the deterioration of air quality from the extensive burning of coal (Schobert, 1987). Since then, from time to time, coal combustion has been restricted or banned in London, England, because of the environmental and health problems caused primarily by the release of sulfur gases. 

Policy Dow s Core Values and EH S policy are included in the report. In the EH S policy Dow states Our goal is to eliminate all injuries, prevent adverse environmental and health impacts, reduce wastes and emissions and promote resource conservation at every stage of the life cycle of our products. We will report our progress and be responsive to the public. ... 

Figure 21.2 Chemical composition of the most commonly used quantum dots in biological applications, (a) CdSe quantum dots functionalized with mercaptoacetic acid, whose —SH bonds directly to the semiconductor, leaving the carboxylate group ftee to interact with aqueous solution, (b) CdSe quantum dots with a 1 to 2 nm thick layer of ZnS or CdS, functionalized with mercaptoacetic acid, (c) CdSe/ZnS quantum dots coated with polymers and the protein strepta-vidin. The overall nanocrystal size is a function of the surface coating and/or functionalization. (Repoduced with permission from V. H. Grassian, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Environmental and Health Impacts. Copyright 2008 John Wiley Sons Inc.)...

Figure 21.12 Comparison of the diameter of lepiesentalive particles and the effective pore diameter of natural soil materials. (Reproduced with permission from V. H. Grassian, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Environmental and Health Impacts. Copyright 2008 John Wiley Sons, Inc.)...

These accidents, and many less devastating incidents that continue to occur today, were linked by an incomplete analysis of human factors. The human side of safety was ignored with high costs. Chemical manufacturers have yet to get over the impact of Bhopal, which killed 3,800 and injured over 200,000. Litigation is still in process. It required 4.5 years and 970 million to clean up after the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident. That cost is hundreds of millions more than the cost to build the plant. Long-term environmental and health impacts of Chernobyl continue to haunt Russia and her neighbors. 

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