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  • Articles  (298)
  • heavy metals  (118)
  • risk assessment  (71)
  • mercury  (63)
  • lead  (57)
  • Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering  (298)
  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 83 (1994), S. 341-349 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: Antarctica ; distribution ; heavy metals ; inter-metal correlation ; seals
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 2
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 85 (1994), S. 153-160 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: grey seal ; harbour seal ; harp seal ; mercury ; ringed seal ; selenium
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 3
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 84 (1994), S. 131-138 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: air pollution ; bioindicators ; element ratios ; geochemical relations ; heavy metals
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 4
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 86 (1994), S. 83-88 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: Manila Bay ; heavy metals ; historical trend of pollution ; marine sediment ; riverine sediment
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 5
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 84 (1994), S. 253-259 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: canvasbacks ; contaminants ; lead ; metals ; waterfowl
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 6
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Amsterdam : Elsevier
    Environmental Pollution 84 (1994), S. 159-166 
    ISSN: 0269-7491
    Keywords: children ; dust ; lead ; pollution ; soil
    Source: Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect 1907 - 2002
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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  • 7
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 18 (1998), S. 563-573 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Risk assessment ; mourning doves ; hunting ; radionuclides ; heavy metals ; lead shot ; cesium
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Recreational and subsistence hunters and anglers consume a wide range of species, including birds, mammals, fish and shellfish, some of which represent significant exposure pathways for environmental toxic agents. This study focuses on the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Savannah River Site (SRS), a former nuclear weapons production facility in South Carolina. The potential risk of contaminant intake from consuming mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), the most popular United States game bird, was examined under various risk scenarios. For all of these scenarios we used the mean tissue concentration of six metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium, chromium, manganese) and radiocesium, in doves collected on and near SRS. We also estimated risk to a child consuming doves that had the maximum contaminant level. We used the cancer slope factor for radiocesium, the Environmental Protection Agencies Uptake/Biokinetic model for lead, and published reference doses for the other metals. As a result of our risk assessments we recommend management of water levels in contaminated reservoirs so that lake bed sediments are not exposed to use by gamebirds and other terrestrial wildlife. Particularly, measures should be taken to insure that the hunting public does not have access to such a site. Our data also indicate that doves on popular hunting areas are exposed to excess lead, suggesting that banning lead shot for doves, as has been done for waterfowl, is desirable.
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  • 8
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 527-545 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: breast-feeding ; chlorinated compounds ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Exposure to persistent organochlorines in breast milk was estimated probabilistically for Canadian infants. Noncancer health effects were evaluated by comparing the predicted exposure distributions to published guidance values. For chemicals identified as potential human carcinogens, cancer risks were evaluated using standard methodology typically applied in Canada, as well as an alternative method developed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Potential health risks associated with exposure to persistent organochlorines were quantitatively and qualitatively weighed against the benefits of breast-feeding. Current levels of the majority of contaminants identified in Canadian breast milk do not pose unacceptable risks to infants. Benefits of breast-feeding are well documented and qualitatively appear to outweigh potential health concerns associated with organochlorine exposure. Furthermore, the risks of mortality from not breast-feeding estimated by Rogan and colleagues exceed the theoretical cancer risks estimated for infant exposure to potential carcinogens in Canadian breast milk. Although levels of persistent compounds have been declining in Canadian breast milk, potentially significant risks were estimated for exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, dibenzo-p-dioxins, and dibenzofurans. Follow-up work is suggested that would involve the use of a physiologically based toxicokinetic model with probabilistic inputs to predict dioxin exposure to the infant. A more detailed risk analysis could be carried out by coupling the exposure estimates with a dose–response analysis that accounts for uncertainty.
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  • 9
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 689-701 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk ; risk perception ; risk assessment ; risk communication ; risk management
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Risk management has become increasingly politicized and contentious. Polarized views, controversy, and conflict have become pervasive. Research has begun to provide a new perspective on this problem by demonstrating the complexity of the concept “risk” and the inadequacies of the traditional view of risk assessment as a purely scientific enterprise. This paper argues that danger is real, but risk is socially constructed. Risk assessment is inherently subjective and represents a blending of science and judgment with important psychological, social, cultural, and political factors. In addition, our social and democratic institutions, remarkable as they are in many respects, breed distrust in the risk arena. Whoever controls the definition of risk controls the rational solution to the problem at hand. If risk is defined one way, then one option will rise to the top as the most cost-effective or the safest or the best. If it is defined another way, perhaps incorporating qualitative characteristics and other contextual factors, one will likely get a different ordering of action solutions. Defining risk is thus an exercise in power. Scientific literacy and public education are important, but they are not central to risk controversies. The public is not irrational. Their judgments about risk are influenced by emotion and affect in a way that is both simple and sophisticated. The same holds true for scientists. Public views are also influenced by worldviews, ideologies, and values; so are scientists' views, particularly when they are working at the limits of their expertise. The limitations of risk science, the importance and difficulty of maintaining trust, and the complex, sociopolitical nature of risk point to the need for a new approach—one that focuses upon introducing more public participation into both risk assessment and risk decision making in order to make the decision process more democratic, improve the relevance and quality of technical analysis, and increase the legitimacy and public acceptance of the resulting decisions.
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  • 10
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 711-726 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: variability ; exposure ; susceptibility ; risk assessment ; pharmacokinetics ; pharmacodynamics
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This paper reviews existing data on the variability in parameters relevant for health risk analyses. We cover both exposure-related parameters and parameters related to individual susceptibility to toxicity. The toxicity/susceptibility data base under construction is part of a longer term research effort to lay the groundwork for quantitative distributional analyses of non-cancer toxic risks. These data are broken down into a variety of parameter types that encompass different portions of the pathway from external exposure to the production of biological responses. The discrete steps in this pathway, as we now conceive them, are: •Contact Rate (Breathing rates per body weight; fish consumption per body weight) •Uptake or Absorption as a Fraction of Intake or Contact Rate •General Systemic Availability Net of First Pass Elimination and Dilution via Distribution Volume (e.g., initial blood concentration per mg/kg of uptake) •Systemic Elimination (half life or clearance) •Active Site Concentration per Systemic Blood or Plasma Concentration •Physiological Parameter Change per Active Site Concentration (expressed as the dose required to make a given percentage change in different people, or the dose required to achieve some proportion of an individual's maximum response to the drug or toxicant) •Functional Reserve Capacity–Change in Baseline Physiological Parameter Needed to Produce a Biological Response or Pass a Criterion of Abnormal Function Comparison of the amounts of variability observed for the different parameter types suggests that appreciable variability is associated with the final step in the process–differences among people in “functional reserve capacity.” This has the implication that relevant information for estimating effective toxic susceptibility distributions may be gleaned by direct studies of the population distributions of key physiological parameters in people that are not exposed to the environmental and occupational toxicants that are thought to perturb those parameters. This is illustrated with some recent observations of the population distributions of Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol from the second and third National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
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  • 11
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 763-807 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk assessment ; probabilistic risk assessment ; performance assessment ; policy analysis ; history of technology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This article describes the evolution of the process for assessing the hazards of a geologic disposal system for radioactive waste and, similarly, nuclear power reactors, and the relationship of this process with other assessments of risk, particularly assessments of hazards from manufactured carcinogenic chemicals during use and disposal. This perspective reviews the common history of scientific concepts for risk assessment developed until the 1950s. Computational tools and techniques developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s to analyze the reliability of nuclear weapon delivery systems were adopted in the early 1970s for probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power reactors, a technology for which behavior was unknown. In turn, these analyses became an important foundation for performance assessment of nuclear waste disposal in the late 1970s. The evaluation of risk to human health and the environment from chemical hazards is built on methods for assessing the dose response of radionuclides in the 1950s. Despite a shared background, however, societal events, often in the form of legislation, have affected the development path for risk assessment for human health, producing dissimilarities between these risk assessments and those for nuclear facilities. An important difference is the regulator's interest in accounting for uncertainty.
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  • 12
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk perception ; CRESP ; trust ; DOE Savannah River site ; risk assessment ; stakeholder ; economic dependence
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Environmental managers are increasingly charged with involving the public in the development and modification of policies regarding risks to human health and the environment. Involving the public in environmental decision making first requires a broad understanding of how and why the public perceives various risks. The Savannah River Stakeholder Study was conducted with the purpose of investigating individual, economic, and social characteristics of risk perceptions among those living near the Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Site. A number of factors were found to impact risk perceptions among those living near the site. One's estimated proximity to the site and relative river location surfaced as strong determinants of risk perceptions among SRS residents. Additionally, living in a quality neighborhood and demonstrating a willingness to accept health risks for economic gain strongly abated heightened risk perceptions.
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  • 13
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk assessment ; uncertainty ; formaldehyde ; decision analysis
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A call for risk assessment approaches that better characterize and quantify uncertainty has been made by the scientific and regulatory community. This paper responds to that call by demonstrating a distributional approach that draws upon human data to derive potency estimates and to identify and quantify important sources of uncertainty. The approach is rooted in the science of decision analysis and employs an influence diagram, a decision tree, probabilistic weights, and a distribution of point estimates of carcinogenic potency. Its results estimate the likelihood of different carcinogenic risks (potencies) for a chemical under a specific scenario. For this exercise, human data on formaldehyde were employed to demonstrate the approach. Sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the relative impact of specific levels and alternatives on the potency distribution. The resulting potency estimates are compared with the results of an exercise using animal data on formaldehyde. The paper demonstrates that distributional risk assessment is readily adapted to situations in which epidemiologic data serve as the basis for potency estimates. Strengths and weaknesses of the distributional approach are discussed. Areas for further application and research are recommended.
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  • 14
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 1157-1171 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk assessment ; transportation risk ; diesel exhaust ; fugitive dust ; vehicle emissions
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract When the transportation risk posed by shipments of hazardous chemical and radioactive materials is being assessed, it is necessary to evaluate the risks associated with both vehicle emissions and cargo-related risks. Diesel exhaust and fugitive dust emissions from vehicles transporting hazardous shipments lead to increased air pollution, which increases the risk of latent fatalities in the affected population along the transport route. The estimated risk from these vehicle-related sources can often be as large or larger than the estimated risk associated with the material being transported. In this paper, data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Motor Vehicle-Related Air Toxics Study are first used to develop latent cancer fatality estimates per kilometer of travel in rural and urban areas for all diesel truck classes. These unit risk factors are based on studies investigating the carcinogenic nature of diesel exhaust. With the same methodology, the current per-kilometer latent fatality risk factor used in transportation risk assessments for heavy diesel trucks in urban areas is revised and the analysis expanded to provide risk factors for rural areas and all diesel truck classes. These latter fatality estimates may include, but are not limited to, cancer fatalities and are based primarily on the most recent epidemiological data available on mortality rates associated with ambient air PM-10 concentrations.
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  • 15
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: municipal waste incineration ; risk assessment ; Monte-Carlo simulation ; time activity patterns
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract During the modernization of the municipal waste incinerator (MWI, maximum capacity of 180,000 tons per year) of Metropolitan Grenoble (405,000 inhabitants), in France, a risk assessment was conducted, based on four tracer pollutants: two volatile organic compounds (benzene and 1, 1, 1 trichloroethane) and two heavy metals (nickel and cadmium, measured in particles). A Gaussian plume dispersion model, applied to maximum emissions measured at the MWI stacks, was used to estimate the distribution of these pollutants in the atmosphere throughout the metropolitan area. A random sample telephone survey (570 subjects) gathered data on time-activity patterns, according to demographic characteristics of the population. Life-long exposure was assessed as a time-weighted average of ambient air concentrations. Inhalation alone was considered because, in the Grenoble urban setting, other routes of exposure are not likely. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to describe probability distributions of exposures and risks. The median of the life-long personal exposures distribution to MWI benzene was 3.2·10−5 μg/m3 (20th and 80th percentiles = 1.5·10−5 and 6.5·10−5 μg/m3), yielding a 2.6·10−10 carcinogenic risk (1.2·10−10–5.4·10−10). For nickel, the corresponding life-time exposure and cancer risk were 1.8·10−4 μg/m3 (0.9.10−4 – 3.6·10−4 μg/m3) and 8.6·10−8 (4.3·10−8–17.3·10−8); for cadmium they were respectively 8.3·10−6 μg/m3 (4.0·10−6–17.6·10−6) and 1.5·10−8 (7.2·10−9–3.1·10−8). Inhalation exposure to cadmium emitted by the MWI represented less than 1% of the WHO Air Quality Guideline (5 ng/m3), while there was a margin of exposure of more than 109 between the NOAEL (150 ppm) and exposure estimates to trichloroethane. Neither dioxins nor mercury, a volatile metal, were measured. This could lessen the attributable life-long risks estimated. The minute (VOCs and cadmium) to moderate (nickel) exposure and risk estimates are in accord with other studies on modern MWIs meeting recent emission regulations, however.
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  • 16
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: MeHg ; pharmacokinetics ; PBPK model ; variability ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract An analysis of the uncertainty in guidelines for the ingestion of methylmercury (MeHg) due to human pharmacokinetic variability was conducted using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model that describes MeHg kinetics in the pregnant human and fetus. Two alternative derivations of an ingestion guideline for MeHg were considered: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose (RfD) of 0.1 μg/kg/day derived from studies of an Iraqi grain poisoning episode, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry chronic oral minimal risk level (MRL) of 0.5 μg/kg/day based on studies of a fish-eating population in the Seychelles Islands. Calculation of an ingestion guideline for MeHg from either of these epidemiological studies requires calculation of a dose conversion factor (DCF) relating a hair mercury concentration to a chronic MeHg ingestion rate. To evaluate the uncertainty in this DCF across the population of U.S. women of child-bearing age, Monte Carlo analyses were performed in which distributions for each of the parameters in the PBPK model were randomly sampled 1000 times. The 1st and 5th percentiles of the resulting distribution of DCFs were a factor of 1.8 and 1.5 below the median, respectively. This estimate of variability is consistent with, but somewhat less than, previous analyses performed with empirical, one-compartment pharmacokinetic models. The use of a consistent factor in both guidelines of 1.5 for pharmacokinetic variability in the DCF, and keeping all other aspects of the derivations unchanged, would result in an RfD of 0.2 μg/kg/day and an MRL of 0.3 μg/kg/day.
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  • 17
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 577-584 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk assessment ; exposure point concentration ; bootstrapping ; gamma distribution ; lognormal
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends the use of the one-sided 95% upper confidence limit of the arithmetic mean based on either a normal or lognormal distribution for the contaminant (or exposure point) concentration term in the Superfund risk assessment process. When the data are not normal or lognormal this recommended approach may overestimate the exposure point concentration (EPC) and may lead to unecessary cleanup at a hazardous waste site. The EPA concentration term only seems to perform like alternative EPC methods when the data are well fit by a lognormal distribution. Several alternative methods for calculating the EPC are investigated and compared using soil data collected from three hazardous waste sites in Montana, Utah, and Colorado. For data sets that are well fit by a lognormal distribution, values for the Chebychev inequality or the EPA concentration term may be appropriate EPCs. For data sets where the soil concentration data are well fit by gamma distributions, Wong's method may be used for calculating EPCs. The studentized bootstrap-t and Hall's bootstrap-t transformation are recommended for EPC calculation when all distribution fits are poor. If a data set is well fit by a distribution, parametric bootstrap may provide a suitable EPC.
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  • 18
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: regulation ; radioactive waste ; performance assessment ; risk assessment ; regulatory assessment ; bias evaluation ; international collaboration ; underground disposal ; quantitative risk analysis ; public debate ; decision process
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Much has been written about the development and application of quantitative methods for estimating under uncertainty the long-term radiological performance of underground disposal of radioactive wastes. Until recently, interest has been focused almost entirely on the technical challenges regardless of the role of the organization responsible for these analyses. Now the dialogue between regulators, the repository developer or operator, and other interested parties in the decision-making process receives increasing attention, especially in view of some current difficulties in obtaining approvals to construct or operate deep facilities for intermediate or high-level wastes. Consequently, it is timely to consider the options for regulators' review and evaluation of safety submissions, at the various stages in the site selection to repository closure process, and to consider, especially, the role for performance assessment (PA) within the programs of a regulator both before and after delivery of such a submission. The origins and broad character of present regulations in the European Union (EU) and in the OECD countries are outlined and some regulatory PA reviewed. The issues raised are discussed, especially in regard to the interpretation of regulations, the dangers from the desire for simplicity in argument, the use of regulatory PA to review and challenge the PA in the safety case, and the effects of the relationship between proponent and regulator. Finally, a very limited analysis of the role of PA in public hearings is outlined and recommendations are made, together with proposals for improving the mechanisms for international collaboration on technical issues of regulatory concern.
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  • 19
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    Springer
    Risk analysis 18 (1998), S. 679-688 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Air quality ; benchmarking ; best available control technology ; contaminant exposure ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Although occupational exposure limits are sought to establish health-based standards, they do not always give a sufficient basis for planning an indoor air climate that is good and comfortable for the occupants in industrial work rooms. This paper considers methodologies by which the desired level, i.e., target level, of air quality in industrial settings can be defined, taking into account feasibility issues. Risk assessment based on health criteria is compared with risk-assessment based on “Best Available Technology” (BAT). Because health-based risk estimates at low concentration regions are rather inaccurate, the technology-based approach is emphasized. The technological approach is based on information on the prevailing concentrations in industrial work environments and the benchmark air quality attained with the best achievable technology. The prevailing contaminant concentrations are obtained from a contaminant exposure databank, and the benchmark air quality by field measurements in industrial work rooms equipped with advanced ventilation and production technology. As an example, the target level assessment has been applied to formaldehyde, total inorganic dust and hexavalent chromium, which are common contaminants in work room air.
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  • 20
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    Springer
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 23-32 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Software failures ; software hazard analysis ; safety-critical systems ; risk assessment ; context
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract As the use of digital computers for instrumentation and control of safety-critical systems has increased, there has been a growing debate over the issue of whether probabilistic risk assessment techniques can be applied to these systems. This debate has centered on the issue of whether software failures can be modeled probabilistically. This paper describes a “context-based” approach to software risk assessment that explicitly recognizes the fact that the behavior of software is not probabilistic. The source of the perceived uncertainty in its behavior results from both the input to the software as well as the application and environment in which the software is operating. Failures occur as the result of encountering some context for which the software was not properly designed, as opposed to the software simply failing “randomly.” The paper elaborates on the concept of “error-forcing context” as it applies to software. It also illustrates a methodology which utilizes event trees, fault trees, and the Dynamic Flowgraph Methodology (DFM) to identify “error-forcing contexts” for software in the form of fault tree prime implicants.
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  • 21
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Benchmark ; mercury ; risk assessment ; epidemiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This paper presents benchmark (BMD) calculations and additional regression analyses of data from a study in which scores from 26 scholastic and psychological tests administered to 237 6- and 7-year-old New Zealand children were correlated with the mercury concentration in their mothers' hair during pregnancy. The original analyses of five test scores found an association between high prenatal mercury exposure and decreased test performance, using category variables for mercury exposure. Our regression analyses, which utilized the actual hair mercury level, did not find significant associations between mercury and children's test scores. However, this finding was highly influenced by a single child whose mother's mercury hair level (86 mg/kg) was more than four times that of any other mother. When that child was omitted, results were more indicative of a mercury effect and scores on six tests were significantly associated with the mothers' hair mercury level. BMDs calculated from five tests ranged from 32 to 73 mg/kg hair mercury, and corresponding BMDLs (95% lower limits on BMDs) ranged from 17 to 24 mg/kg. When the child with the highest mercury level was omitted, BMDs ranged from 13 to 21 mg/kg, and corresponding BMDLs ranged from 7.4 to 10 mg/kg.
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  • 22
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Remediation ; stakeholders ; deliberation ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The National Research Council has recommended the use of an analytic/deliberative decision-making process in environmental restoration decisions that involve multiple stakeholders. This work investigates the use of the results of risk assessment and multiattribute utility analysis (the “analysis”) in guiding the deliberation. These results include the ranking of proposed remedial action alternatives according to each stakeholder's preferences, as well as the identification of the major reasons for these rankings. The stakeholder preferences are over a number of performance measures that include the traditional risk assessment metrics, e.g., individual worker risk, as well as programmatic, cultural, and cost-related impacts. Based on these results, a number of proposals are prepared for consideration by the stakeholders during the deliberation. These proposals are the starting point for the formulation of actual recommendations by the group. In our case study, these recommendations included new remedial action alternatives that were created by the stakeholders after an extensive discussion of the detailed analytical results.
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  • 23
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    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 327-334 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Biological introductions ; binucleate Rhizoctonia ; biocontrol ; risk assessment ; seedlings ; susceptibility
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This article describes an application of a method for assessing risks associated with the introduction of an organism into a new environment. The test organism was a binucleate Rhizoctonia fungal isolate that has potential for commercial development as a biological control agent for damping-off diseases in bedding plants. A test sample of host plant species was selected using the centrifugal phylogenetic host range principles, but with an emphasis on economic species. The effect of the fungus on the plant was measured for each species and expressed on a logarithmic scale. The effects on weights of shoots and roots per container were not normally distributed, nor were the effects on the number of plants standing (those which survived). Statements about the effect on the number standing and the shoot weight per container involved using the observed (empirical) distribution. This is illustrated with an example. Problems were encountered in defining the population of species at risk, and in deciding how this population should be formally sampled. The limitations of the method are discussed.
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  • 24
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: dose-response ; models ; food-borne ; pathogens ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Food-related illness in the United States is estimated to affect over six million people per year and cost the economy several billion dollars. These illnesses and costs could be reduced if minimum infectious doses were established and used as the basis of regulations and monitoring. However, standard methodologies for dose-response assessment are not yet formulated for microbial risk assessment. The objective of this study was to compare dose-response models for food-borne pathogens and determine which models were most appropriate for a range of pathogens. The statistical models proposed in the literature and chosen for comparison purposes were log-normal, log-logistic, exponential, β-Poisson and Weibull-Gamma. These were fit to four data sets also taken from published literature, Shigella flexneri, Shigella dysenteriae,Campylobacter jejuni, and Salmonella typhosa, using the method of maximum likelihood. The Weibull-gamma, the only model with three parameters, was also the only model capable of fitting all the data sets examined using the maximum likelihood estimation for comparisons. Infectious doses were also calculated using each model. Within any given data set, the infectious dose estimated to affect one percent of the population ranged from one order of magnitude to as much as nine orders of magnitude, illustrating the differences in extrapolation of the dose response models. More data are needed to compare models and examine extrapolation from high to low doses for food-borne pathogens.
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  • 25
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: ethylene oxide ; risk assessment ; epidemiology ; cancer guidelines
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Ethylene oxide (EO) research has significantly increased since the 1980s, when regulatory risk assessments were last completed on the basis of the animal cancer chronic bioassays. In tandem with the new scientific understanding, there have been evolutionary changes in regulatory risk assessment guidelines, that encourage flexibility and greater use of scientific information. The results of an updated meta-analysis of the findings from 10 unique EO study cohorts from five countries, including nearly 33,000 workers, and over 800 cancers are presented, indicating that EO does not cause increased risk of cancers overall or of brain, stomach or pancreatic cancers. The findings for leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) are inconclusive. Two studies with the requisite attributes of size, individual exposure estimates and follow up are the basis for dose-response modeling and added lifetime risk predictions under environmental and occupational exposure scenarios and a variety of plausible alternative assumptions. A point of departure analysis, with various margins of exposure, is also illustrated using human data. The two datasets produce remarkably similar leukemia added risk predictions, orders of magnitude lower than prior animal-based predictions under conservative, default assumptions, with risks on the order of 1 × 10−6 or lower for exposures in the low ppb range. Inconsistent results for “lymphoid” tumors, a non-standard grouping using histologic information from death certificates, are discussed. This assessment demonstrates the applicability of the current risk assessment paradigm to epidemiological data.
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    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 1223-1234 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk assessment ; standard-setting ; carcinogens ; OSHA ; ACGIH
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract For carcinogens, this paper provides a quantitative examination of the roles of potency and weight-of-evidence (WOE) in setting permissible exposure limits (PELs) at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and threshold limit values (TLVs) at the private American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). On normative grounds, both of these factors should influence choices about the acceptable level of exposures. Our major objective is to examine whether and in what ways these factors have been considered by these organizations. A lesser objective is to identify outliers, which might be candidates for further regulatory scrutiny. Our sample (N=48) includes chemicals for which EPA has estimated a unit risk as a measure of carcinogenic potency and for which OSHA or the ACGIH has a PEL or TLV. Different assessments of the strength of the evidence of carcinogenicity were obtained from EPA, ACGIH, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We found that potency alone explains 49% of the variation in PELs and 62% of the variation in TLVs. For the ACGIH, WOE plays a much smaller role than potency. TLVs set by the ACGIH since 1989 appear to be stricter than earlier TLVs. We suggest that this change represents evidence that the ACGIH had responded to criticisms leveled at it in the late 1980s for failing to adopt sufficiently protective standards. The models developed here identify 2-nitropropane, ethylene dibromide, and chromium as having OSHA PELs significantly higher than predicted on the basis of potency and WOE.
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  • 27
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Extreme events ; risk assessment ; risk management ; extreme value theory ; judgmental distributions
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract In this paper, we review methods for assessing and managing the risk of extreme events, where “extreme events” are defined to be rare, severe, and outside the normal range of experience of the system in question. First, we discuss several systematic approaches for identifying possible extreme events. We then discuss some issues related to risk assessment of extreme events, including what type of output is needed (e.g., a single probability vs. a probability distribution), and alternatives to the probabilistic approach. Next, we present a number of probabilistic methods. These include: guidelines for eliciting informative probability distributions from experts; maximum entropy distributions; extreme value theory; other approaches for constructing prior distributions (such as reference or noninformative priors); the use of modeling and decomposition to estimate the probability (or distribution) of interest; and bounding methods. Finally, we briefly discuss several approaches for managing the risk of extreme events, and conclude with recommendations and directions for future research.
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  • 28
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Market response ; risk assessment ; airplane accidents ; airline industry
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The risk of catastrophic failures, for example in the aviation and aerospace industries, can be approached from different angles (e.g., statistics when they exist, or a detailed probabilistic analysis of the system). Each new accident carries information that has already been included in the experience base or constitutes new evidence that can be used to update a previous assessment of the risk. In this paper, we take a different approach and consider the risk and the updating from the investor's point of view. Based on the market response to past airplane accidents, we examine which ones have created a “surprise response” and which ones are considered part of the risk of the airline business as previously assessed. To do so, we quantify the magnitude and the timing of the observed market response to catastrophic accidents, and we compare it to an estimate of the response that would be expected based on the true actual cost of the accident including direct and indirect costs (“full-cost information” response). First, we develop a method based on stock market data to measure the actual market response to an accident and we construct an estimate of the “full-cost information” response to such an event. We then compare the two figures for the immediate and the long-term response of the market for the affected firm, as well as for the whole industry group to which the firm belongs. As an illustration, we analyze a sample of ten fatal accidents experienced by major US domestic airlines during the last seven years. In four cases, we observed an abnormal market response. In these instances, it seems that the shareholders may have updated their estimates of the probability of a future accident in the affected airlines or more generally of the firm's future business prospects. This market reaction is not always easy to explain much less to anticipate, a fact which management should bear in mind when planning a firm's response to such an event.
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  • 29
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Uncertainty ; variability ; risk assessment ; risk management ; ozone ; clean air act ; social policy ; analysis of benefits and costs
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This paper is a challenge from a pair of lifelong technical specialists in risk assessment for the risk-management community to better define social decision criteria for risk acceptance vs. risk control in relation to the issues of variability and uncertainty. To stimulate discussion, we offer a variety of “straw man” proposals about where we think variability and uncertainty are likely to matter for different types of social policy considerations in the context of a few different kinds of decisions. In particular, we draw on recent presentations of uncertainty and variability data that have been offered by EPA in the context of the consideration of revised ambient air quality standards under the Clean Air Act.
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    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 135-152 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: Probability ; uncertainty ; data ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Risk assessors attempting to use probabilistic approaches to describe uncertainty often find themselves in a data-sparse situation: available data are only partially relevant to the parameter of interest, so one needs to adjust empirical distributions, use explicit judgmental distributions, or collect new data. In determining whether or not to collect additional data, whether by measurement or by elicitation of experts, it is useful to consider the expected value of the additional information. The expected value of information depends on the prior distribution used to represent current information; if the prior distribution is too narrow, in many risk-analytic cases the calculated expected value of information will be biased downward. The well-documented tendency toward overconfidence, including the neglect of potential surprise, suggests this bias may be substantial. We examine the expected value of information, including the role of surprise, test for bias in estimating the expected value of information, and suggest procedures to guard against overconfidence and underestimation of the expected value of information when developing prior distributions and when combining distributions obtained from multiple experts. The methods are illustrated with applications to potential carcinogens in food, commercial energy demand, and global climate change.
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    Stochastic environmental research and risk assessment 8 (1994), S. 57-77 
    ISSN: 1436-3259
    Keywords: Stochastic transport ; risk assessment ; concentration CDF ; exceedance probabilities
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Surveying , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract This paper presents the principles underlying a recently developed numerical technique for modeling transport in heterogeneous porous media. The method is then applied to derive the concentration mean and variance, the concentration CDF, exceedance probabilities and exposure time CDF, which are required by various regulatory agencies for risk and performance assessment calculations. The dependence of the various statistics on elapsed travel time, location in space, the dimension of the detection volume, natural variability and pore-scale dispersion is investigated and discussed.
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    Biodegradation 3 (1992), S. 161-170 
    ISSN: 1572-9729
    Keywords: bioremediation ; cadmium ; heavy metals
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Cadmium pollution arises mainly from contamination of minerals used in agriculture and from industrial processes. The usual situation is of large volumes of soil and water that are contaminated with low — but significant — concentrations of cadmium. Therefore, detoxification of the polluted water and soil involves the concentration of the metal, or binding it in a way that makes it biologically inert. Cadmium is one of the more toxic metals, that is also carcinogenic and teratogenic. Its effects are short term, even acute (diseases like Itai-itai), or long term. The long term effects are intensified due to the fact that cadmium accumulates in the body. This paper describes a study involving several hundred cadmium-resistant bacterial isolates. These bacteria could be divided into three groups—the largest group consisted of bacteria resistant to cadmium by effluxing it from the cells. The bacteria of the other two groups were capable of binding cadmium or of detoxifying it. We concentrated on one strain that could bind cadmium very efficiently, depending on the bacterial biomass and on the pH. This strain could effectively remove cadmium from contaminated water and soil.
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    Natural hazards 22 (2000), S. 117-138 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: fatalities ; flood ; bushfire ; heatwave ; eastern Australia ; ENSO ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract The interannual variability of flood, bushfire andheatwave fatality data for eastern Australia duringthe period 1876–1991 was analysed with respect to thephase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)and the associated values of the Southern OscillationIndex (SOI). Heatwaves were found to be the mostserious peril in terms of the total number offatalities, while floods ranked first in the fatalityevent day statistics. None of the three monthly(absolute value) fatality data sets showed significantcorrelations with the corresponding values of the SOI,while the correlation analysis of annual (July toJune) data led to significant correlation coefficientsof 0.5 for floods and -0.3 for bushfires. AdditionalSOI value-related classification of the standardisedfatality event days into several ENSO categoriesconfirmed the correlation trends by showing anincrease (decrease) in the standardised bushfire(flood) fatality event day frequencies with increasingvalues of the SOI. In contrast to that, thestandardised heatwave fatality data showed aninconclusive distribution pattern, which hints at theinfluence of other possible factors (such as airpollution) on heatwave-related fatality numbers. The results of a risk assessment analysis have shownthat the probability of reaching the mean annualnumber of flood-fatality event days is roughly fourtimes higher during La Niña seasons (80%) thanthe corresponding probability associated with ElNiño periods (18%). The correspondingprobabilities associated with the mean bushfire andheatwave fatality event days displayed a reversedpattern, with the probabilities of El Niño-relatedyears being roughly twice as high as those associatedwith La Niña seasons (70% and 30% for bushfires,and 60% and 25% for heatwaves, respectively).Further probability calculations performed on thetotals of fatalities from all three perils identifiedthe La Niña years as potentially the mostdangerous in terms of suffering fatalities from theseperils. Furthermore, they highlighted the significantdifferences between the means of fatality event daynumbers recorded during years of extreme SOI values(9.8 for La Niña, and 9.1 for El Niño seasons)and those marked by near-zero SOI values (6.6). Themajor reason for the increase in risk associated withextreme ENSO phases was the higher variability ofthese perils during the respective seasons.
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    Natural hazards 21 (2000), S. 347-360 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: volcanic hazard ; risk assessment ; GIS ; physical simulation models ; information systems ; emergency planning
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract The incorporation of a set ofcomputer-based tools, such as Geographical InformationSystems and physical models, to the field of riskassessment, introduces a new perspective in thevolcanic risk maps production, increasing the analysisand modelling capabilities available through theapplication of conventional methodologies. Amethodology adapted to the requirements andcharacteristics of the new operating environment hasbeen applied at Tenerife island (Canary Islands,Spain) to carry out a study devoted to analyse thesuitability of these tools for near real-timemanagement of volcanic crises. With this in mind, aseries of potential eruption scenarios have beenselected to identify and characterise which elementsat risk would prove most vulnerable against a specificvolcanic phenomenon, depending on the socio-economiccharacteristics of the area affected and the resultingdistribution of the volcanic products. This kind ofinformation is fundamental to update, adapt or produceeffective risk management and emergency plans orprotocols, where the measures to mitigate or fightagainst a specific volcanic disaster have to be taken,incorporating the existing knowledge of the phenomenonbehaviour and taking into account their potentialeffects on the area of interest.
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    Natural hazards 20 (1999), S. 279-294 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: risk assessment ; groundwater contamination ; vulnerability ; GIS ; hazard ; economic ; value
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract The groundwater contamination risk map of a samplealluvial area was produced by using the IlwisGeographical Information System (GIS) to construct andto overlay thematic maps. The risk map has beenderived from the vulnerability map, the hazard map,where the potential contaminating sources wereidentified, and the socio-economic value of thegroundwater resource, represented by the wells. Thegroundwater quality map allowed thereliability of hazard and risk maps to be tested. The final map shows interesting results and stressesthe need for the GIS to test and improve on thegroundwater contamination risk assessment methods.
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    Natural hazards 21 (2000), S. 225-245 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: risk assessment ; emergency preparedness ; legislative measures ; flood prevention and mitigation ; forecasting and warning ; control structure ; public participation ; Canada ; Red River Valley
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract The prevention and/or mitigation offlood disasters requires continual research, numerouscapital investment decisions, and high-qualitymaintenance and modifications of flood-controlstructures. In addition, institutional and privatepreparedness is needed. The experience offlood-control in North America has shown mixedoutcomes: while flood frequency has declined duringthe last few decades, the economic losses havecontinued to rise. Recent catastrophic floods havealso been linked to major structural interventions inthe region. The flood diversions may cause harmfuleffects upon the floodplain inhabitants by influencingflood levels in areas which are not normallyflood-prone. The increasing vulnerability of thefloodplain inhabitants poses new challenges and raisesquestions concerning the existing risk assessmentmethods, institutional preparedness and responses todisaster-related public emergencies, and local-levelpublic involvement in flood mitigation efforts. In the context of the catastrophic 1997 floods of theRed River Valley, Manitoba, Canada, this researchfocuses on two aspects of flood-related emergencygovernance and management: (i) the functions andeffectiveness of control structures, and (ii) theroles, responsibilities and effectiveness oflegislative and other operational measures. The studyconcludes that the flood-loss mitigation measures,both in terms of effects of control structures andinstitutional interventions for emergency evacuation,were not fully effective for ensuring the well-beingand satisfaction of floodplain inhabitants. Althoughorganizational preparedness and mobilization to copewith the 1997 flood emergency was considerable, theirsuccess during the onset of the flood event waslimited. Lack of communication and understandingbetween institutions, a reluctance to implementup-to-date regulations, and minimal publicparticipation in the emergency decision-making processall contributed to the difficulties experienced byfloodplain inhabitants.
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  • 37
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: Tsunami catalog ; precursors ; warning system ; public education ; risk assessment ; Mexico ; Mesoamerican subduction
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract From an inspection of all tide gauge records for the western coast of Mexico over the last 37 years, a data base of all recorded tsunamis was made. Information on relevant historical events dating back two centuries, using newspaper archives, previous catalogs, and local witness interviews, was added to produce a catalog of tsunamis for the western coast of Mexico. A description of the 1932 Cuyutlán tsunami is given. This is considered to be the most destructive local tsunami which has ever occurred in the region for which historical accounts are available. It was preceded by two precursor events, a not uncommon occurrence in that zone. A summary of the generation and coastal effects from the 1985 Michoacán tsunamis is also given. These Michoacán tsunamis are the most recent local events in that zone. This information, and knowledge of local undersea faulting characteristics along the Mexican Pacific coast, leads to a clear differentiation of two zones of potential tsunami hazard: locally generated tsunamis south of the Rivera fracture, in the Cocos plate subsidence region, and remotely generated tsunamis north of this zone. Based on this zonation, two types of tsunami warning systems are proposed: real-time for the southern zone, and delayed-time for the northern. A description is provided of the Baja California Regional Tsunami Warning System that is presently operational in the northern zone. Several major industrial ports and tourist resort areas are located in the southern zone, and are therefore most vulnerable to local destructive tsunamis. Some of these sites represent important socioeconomic resources for Mexico, and have therefore been chosen for a vulnerability assessment and microzonation risk analysis. Land use patterns are identified, risks defined, and recommendations to minimize future tsunami impact are given. One case is illustrated.
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  • 38
    ISSN: 1572-9729
    Keywords: acid mine drainage ; algae ; heavy metals ; high rate algal ponds ; sulphate reducing bacteria ; waste stabilisation ponds
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Acid mine drainage pollution may be associated with large water volume flows and exceptionally long periods of time over which the drainage may require treatment. While the use and role of sulphate reducing bacteria has been demonstrated in active treatment systems for acid mine drainage remediation, reactor size requirement and the cost and availability of the carbon and electron donor source are factors which constrain process development. Little attention has focussed on the use of waste stabilisation ponding processes for acid mine drainage treatment. Wastewater ponding is a mature technology for the treatment of large water volumes and its use as a basis for appropriate reactor design for acid mine drainage treatment is described including high rates of sulphate reduction and the precipitation of metal sulphides. Together with the co-disposal of organic wastes, algal biomass is generated as an independent carbon source for SRB production. Treatment of tannery effluent in a custom-designed high rate algal ponding process, and its use as a carbon source in the generation and precipitation of metal sulphides, has been demonstrated through piloting to the implementation of a full-scale process.The treatment of both mine drainage and zinc refinery wastewaters are reported. A complementary role for microalgal production in the generation of alkalinity and bioadsorptive removal of metals has been utilised and an Integrated 'Algal Sulphate Reducing Ponding Process for the Treatment of Acidic and Metal Wastewaters' (ASPAM) has been described.
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    Biodegradation 9 (1998), S. 311-318 
    ISSN: 1572-9729
    Keywords: glucosinolates ; gypsum ; heavy metals ; phyto-extraction ; phytoremediation ; sulfate
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Sulfur is a major nutrient for all organisms. Plant species have a high biodiversity in uptake, metabolization and accumulation of sulfur so that there are potentials to use plants for phytoremediation of sulfur-enriched sites. A survey of soils enriched with sulfur either naturally or by human activities shows that a surplus of sulfur is mostly accompanied with a surplus of other chemical elements which may limit phytoremediation because these co-occurring elements are more toxic to plants than sulfur. In addition, the accumulation of the other elements makes the plant material (phyto-extraction) less suitable for the use as fodder and for human consumption.
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    Biodegradation 9 (1998), S. 411-422 
    ISSN: 1572-9729
    Keywords: agrochemicals ; heavy metals ; NMR imaging ; NMR spectroscopy ; subcellular compartmentation xenobiotic metabolism
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract The application of non-invasive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods in xenobiotic research is reviewed in relation to: (i) the characterisation of the effects of xenobiotics on the metabolism of plants and plant cell suspensions; (ii) the direct detection of xenobiotics and their degradation products in vivo; and (iii) the spatial localisation of xenobiotics and their derivatives at the subcellular and tissue levels. Novel information has been generated by in vivo NMR studies of both agrochemicals and heavy metals, but a lack of generality in the methods makes it difficult to extrapolate from one successful application to the next. In vivo NMR spectroscopy is shown to be informative when a xenobiotic perturbs metabolic pathways that are accessible to the technique, and it is useful for probing the partitioning of paramagnetic metal ions between the cytoplasm and the vacuole. The successful application of 19F NMR to the analysis of plant tissue extracts also suggests that in vivo 19F NMR spectroscopy may have a role in biotransformation studies of fluorinated xenobiotics. In contrast NMR imaging techniques have been little used for xenobiotic research in plants, and while the method has been shown to be capable of monitoring the uptake and translocation of paramagnetic ions in plants, the potential use of high resolution 1H and 19F NMR imaging for mapping agrochemicals in tissues is still in its infancy.
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  • 41
    ISSN: 1572-9729
    Keywords: bioremediation ; heavy metals ; metal availability ; organic matter ; pyrite ; sulphide oxidation
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract A field experiment, lasting 14 months, was carried out in order to assess the effect of organic amendment and lime addition on the bioavailability of heavy metals in contaminated soils. The experiment took place in a soil affected by acid, highly toxic pyritic waste from the Aznalcóllar mine (Seville, Spain) in April 1998. The following treatments were applied (3 plots per treatment): cow manure, a mature compost, lime (to plots having pH 〈 4), and control without amendment. During the study two crops of Brassica juncea were grown, with two additions of each organic amendment. Throughout the study, the evolution of soil pH, total and available (DTPA-extractable) heavy metals content (Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Pb and Cd), electrical conductivity (EC), soluble sulphates and plant growth and heavy metal uptake were followed. The study indicates that: (1) soil acidification, due to the oxidation of metallic sulphides in the soil, increased heavy metal bioavailability; (2) liming succeeded in controlling the soil acidification; and (3) the organic materials generally promoted fixation of heavy metals in non-available soil fractions, with Cu bioavailability being particularly affected by the organic treatments.
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    Environmental and resource economics 11 (1998), S. 489-501 
    ISSN: 1573-1502
    Keywords: cost-benefit analysis ; environmental policy ; precautionary principle ; risk assessment ; sustainable development
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Economics
    Notes: Abstract Revisions to the European Treaty of Union require some form of environmental appraisal – primarily risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis – of regulatory initiatives by the European Commission. A retrospective look at the emergence of environmental appraisal also shows that, while the Commission has made great advances in introducing cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness appraisals in recent years, past environmental decisions and overall environmental policy have not been informed by systematic appraisal techniques. Nor is it clear what role is now being played by risk assessments. While it is impossible to gauge the extent to which systematic appraisal procedures will save on regulatory and compliance expenditures, some indications are provided of the costs of past neglect of these procedures.
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  • 43
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: acid deposition ; heavy metals ; cadmium ; soil contamination
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Simultaneous soil acidification and deposition of heavy metals is a major concern for forest and agricultural soils of the Black Triangle region of East Central Europe including southern former East Germany, northern Bohemia of the Czech Republic, and southern Poland. The objective of this project was to develop historical and future projections of acid and heavy metal deposition to soils (As, Cd, Pb, Zn) and to produce a preliminary map of soil sensitivity to cadmium pollution and uptake by crops. Ultimately, we wish to assess the relative hazard and recovery times of soils to metals deposition in the region. Emission and deposition data bases obtained from several models developed at IIASA were linked using the Geographical Information System ARC/INFO to produce soil maps of sensitivity to cadmium mobility based on metals deposition, soil type, soil texture, organic matter content, and acid deposition. RAINS 6.1 (Alcamo et al., 1990) was utilized to produce maps of acid deposition for EMEP grids (150 km x 150 km). The largest amount of acid load is deposited in southern East Germany. Sulfur deposition in that area was 10–12 gS/m2/yr in 1990, and S+N deposition exceeded 8000 eq/ha/yr. But the “hot spot” for metals deposition is further to the east, in the Silesia area of southern Poland. The TRACE2 trajectory model of Alcamo, Bartnicki, and Olendrzynski (1992) was used to estimate cumulative metals deposition since 1955 with scenarios to 2010. Pb has improved over Europe since 1970 when depositions in the Ruhr River Valley of West Germany exceeded 60 mg/m2/yr. But cadmium deposition in southern Poland (Katowice and Krakow) has now accumulated to 60–70 mg/m2 by atmospheric deposition alone. During base case simulations from 1955–87, approximately 1.8 mg/kg Pb and 0.12 mg/kg Cd have been added to the mixed plow-layer of ∼30 cm. If these emissions continue indefinitely, the accumulation of metals will become problematic for agriculture and the food chain.
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    Water, air & soil pollution 85 (1995), S. 823-828 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: fish ; mercury ; lake chemistry ; biomagnification
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract We determined mercury in fish (perch Perca fluviatilis) from 26 Russian lakes in three regions over four years. The lakes ranged in size from 2 to 395,000 ha, in pH from 4.5 to 10.0, and in color from 3 to 190 hazen. Sixteen lakes were drainage lakes, with permanent outlets, and 10 were seepage lakes, with no permanent inlets or outlets. The lakes were generally located in forested regions with little or no human habitation in the watershed. The three regions were geologically distinct: Precambrian Shield granitic bedrock covered with thin soil; Triassic bedrock covered with thick glacial tills; and Triassic bedrock covered with thin sediments. At each lake water samples were collected and analyzed for pH, add neutralizing capacity (ANC), major cations, and anions. Dissolved mercury species were estimated with a thermodynamic equilibrium model (MINTEQA2). Mercury content of dorsal muscle varied from 0.04 to 1.0 μg/g wet weight, and was linearly related to calculated HgCH3Cl (r20.68, p〈0.001). Lake HgCH3Cl, in turn, was related to lake pH (r2=0.86, p〈0.001). Stepwise multiple regression selected lake HgCH3Cl and color as the factors most highly related to fish mercury content, with the model accounting for 75% of the variation.
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    Water, air & soil pollution 80 (1995), S. 325-335 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: Atmospheric chemistry ; mercury ; plume model
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A reactive plume model that includes atmospheric chemical reactions of mercury was developed. The model simulates advective transport with the mean wind flow; horizontal and vertical turbulent diffusion; gas phase; aqueous-phase and particulate chemistry; cloud microphysics; wet deposition and dry deposition. The model was applied to the simulation of clear sky, non-precipitating cloud and precipitating cloud scenarios. No significant mercury chemistry occurs in the absence of droplets. In clouds, Hg(II) is reduced to Hg(0) with more reduction taking place in precipitating clouds than in non-precipitating clouds.
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    Water, air & soil pollution 80 (1995), S. 1209-1216 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: gaseous ; particulate ; mercury ; sampling ; silver ; gold ; denuder
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A denuder-based method for sampling and separating gaseous and participate mercury in the air is described. Two different denuder configurations developed in Vilnius, Lithuania (silver) and in Gothenburg, Sweden (gold) are compared. Data were acquired at different sampling locations around the cities of Vilnius and Gothenburg. The concentration of particulate Hg was found to be 0.04 to 0.40 ng m−3 in the Vilnius region, and 0.11 to 0.57 ng m−3 in the Gothenburg region. Intel-calibration results for the silver and gold denuders are presented. The results obtained by the two different denuder configurations and sampling set-ups display satisfactory agreement.
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  • 47
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    Water, air & soil pollution 85 (1995), S. 167-176 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: air pollution ; health effects ; risk assessment
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Based on combined information available from air quality monitoring data and long-range transport models, European population exposure to SO2, NO2 and O3 has been estimated. This information has been combined with the results of epidemiological studies assessing strength of association between the exposure and health effects to estimate an impact of the pollution on health in Europe. The analysis indicates that a considerable number of health problems, ranging from mild irritation of the respiratory system to increased mortality, can be attributed to short-term peaks of pollution observed in Europe. Chronic impacts of prolonged elevated SO2 levels on lung function are estimated to occur in close to10 million people in Europe.
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  • 48
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: Pulp and paper mill sludge ; nitrogen ; DOC ; heavy metals ; water quality
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Primary sludge, secondary sludge, and wood ash from a pulp and paper mill were combined with sand to create a synthetic topsoil (C:N ratio of 18:1) to restore an abandoned gravel pit. Synthetic topsoil was applied to field microcosms at rates equivalent to 0, 2170, 4341, or 6511 kg N/ha; each was seeded with grass. Fifteen chemical constituents in leachate were measured during two field seasons. Cadmium, Ni and Zn were mobilized rapidly by soil disturbance. Chloride and SO4-S eluted rapidly from the sludge along with Na. Nitrate leached with Ca late in each field season when sludge N-mineralization and nitrification exceeded plant uptake and microbial immobilization. Ammonium elution was negligible. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was mobilized by decomposition of organic matter in the sludge, as were Mg and K. Copper eluted with DOC, probably as an organic ligand. Lead and ortho-P were below our detection limits. We concluded that a synthetic topsoil with a 30:1 C:N ratio applied at a rate of 2100-4300 kg N/ha should provide adequate plant nutrition while minimizing water quality hazards.
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  • 49
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    Water, air & soil pollution 89 (1996), S. 267-275 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: mercury ; forest trees ; biomonitors ; contaminants
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The concentration of mercury has been determined in assimilation organs of forest trees from 10 main industrial regions of Slovakia, four mountain forests and one military area and compared with concentration of mercury from 1356 permanent monitoring plots of Slovakia. The mercury concentration ranges for 2 yr old needles of Picea abies Karst. were (in mg kg−1): 1.249–4.402 (Rudnany iron ore mines), 0.013–0.749 (nine other industrial regions), 0.021–0.737 (four mountain forests) and 0.053–0.538 (military area). The mercury content in the soil (0–5 cm) from a mercury smelting plant ranged from 9.9 to 130 mg kg−1, and the moss Pleurozium schreberi contained 3.8–9.1 mg kg−1. The values obtained were compared with the available literature data.
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  • 50
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    Water, air & soil pollution 89 (1996), S. 317-335 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: Soil remediation ; extraction ; heavy metals
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Effective remediation and sanitation technologies for soils contaminated with heavy metals are limited. We investigated the feasibility of a counter-current metal extraction procedure for the removal of selected heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ph, and Zn) from two contaminated soils. The process involved a decarbonation (removal of carbonates), acid solubilisation, washing, and liming step. Results from batch equilibration experiments simulating the counter-current process showed more than 85% of the Cd present to be removed. Removal efficiencies for Cu and Pb were limited to approximately 15%, this mainly due to resorption of these elements during the decarbonation step. As most Zn was found to be present in a more difficult acid-extractable solid phase, its extractability accounted for only 25%. While reaction (pH) conditions of both decarbonation and solubilisation determined removal efficiencies, washing the extracted soil with deionized water only slightly increased the amount of metals removed. Metal distribution among solid phases — exchangeable, carbonate, reducible, organically bound, and residual — was affected by the different treatments. The amount of metals contained in the exchangeable and residual fractions determined their extractability. Except for Cu, the reducible and organically bound fractions were less important. After solubilisation 13 to 70% of the metals were present in an exchangeable solid phase. This implicates that washing the solubilized soil with a salt may increase the extractability of metals, especially for Zn and Pb. Based on our results the process is critically evaluated and possibilities for optimization formulated.
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  • 51
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: acid rain ; batch experiment ; Freundlich isotherm ; lysimeter experiment ; mercury ; simulation model
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Increasing mercury contents are reported from freshwater systems and fish in northern Europe and North America. Mercury input from soils is a major source with the leaching being affected by increased atmospheric mercury deposition compared to pre-industrial times and by other environmental conditions such as acid rain. The results of a mathematical model-calculation of vertical inorganic Hg(II) leaching in a Scandinavian iron-humus podzol under different atmospheric input rates of mercury are presented. Leaching under background rain conditions was calculated to be considerably stronger than under acid rain conditions. Increasing fractions of deposited soluble or solute atmospheric mercury were leached from the O f(h)-horizon with decreasing soil content of soluble mercury under acid rain conditions; this effect was less pronounced under background rain conditions. The steady state concentrations of soluble mercury of the upper soil horizons were calculated and compared with the actual concentrations of total (= soluble + insoluble mercury) and extractable (= estimate of soluble) mercury measured in these horizons. The results indicate that even if the deposition of airborne mercury to soil is strongly reduced, the total mercury content of the soil decreases only slowly. It may take decades or even centuries before a new steady state concentration of total mercury is established in the soil. The decrease of the mercury concentration in the O f(h)-horizon is probably largely dependent on the turnover of organic matter, binding most of the deposited airborne mercury in an insoluble form. Hence, present day mercury leaching is likely to be dominated by mercury deposited during former times and temporarily retained in an insoluble form in the organic matter.
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  • 52
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: mercury ; foodplains ; humic substances ; complexation ; speciation ; mobilization ; risk assessment ; water solubility
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The water-mobilizability of mercury from contaminated floodplain soils of the river Elbe in Northern Germany was evaluated by batch extraction experiments. It was shown that only a small amount of the total mercury present (about 1% per extraction) can be mobilized by water. This mercury is transported entirely in the form of a complex bound to humic acids (HA); particulates and fulvic acids (FA) did not seem to contribute to the process. It could not be removed from the HA even at pH 1, indicating an extremely strong complexation e.g. by sulfur-containing ligands. Furthermore, the influence of pH on the mobilization was investigated. It was found that in the range of natural pH-values, there was no observable effect of pH on the mobilization of either mercury or dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This surprising finding is explained by an unexpectedly high buffering capacity of the humics, both in the acidic and in the alkaline region. Only at extreme pH-values there was deviation from this behaviour. In contrast to other heavy metals, the amount of mobilized mercury decreases at pH 〈 3; and at pH 〉 12, an increased mobilization of mercury was observed because the humics are mobilized completely, accompanied by the total amount of mercury bound to them.
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  • 53
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    Water, air & soil pollution 90 (1996), S. 531-542 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: heavy metals ; smelting ; soil contamination ; plant contamination
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Forms of Cu, Ni, and Zn in the contaminated soils of the Sudbury mining/smelting district were studied to assess metal mobility and plant availability. Soil, tufted grass (Deschampsia caespitosa (L.) Beauv.), tickle grass (Agrostis scabra Willd.), dwarf birch (Betula pumila L. var. glandulifera Regel) and white birch (Betula paprifera Marsh.) leaf and twig samples were taken from 20 locations around three Cu-Ni smelters. The sampling sites were collected to cover a wide range of soil pH and soil Cu and Ni concentrations. The water-soluble, exchangeable, sodium acetate-soluble, and total concentrations of the metals in the soils were analyzed. The soils were contaminated with Cu and Ni up to 2000 µg g−1. Zinc concentrations were also elevated in some samples above the normal soil level of 100 µg g−1. The mobility of Cu and Zn, expressed as the proportion of metals in Fl and F2 forms, increased with soil pH decrease. A strong positive correlation was found between the soil exchangeable (F2) Ni and the soil pH. Concentrations of Cu and Ni in birch twigs showed a good linear relationship with exchangeable forms of the metals in soils. A highly significant correlation was also found between total Ni in soils and the metal content of the twigs. No significant correlation was found between Zn concentrations in the soils and plants. Birch twigs are a good indicator (better than leaves) of Cu and Ni contamination of the Sudbury soils. The mobile forms of Cu and Ni and low pH seem to be the main factors that will control the success of revegetation. Strong variability of the soil metal mobility requires any reclamation effort be site-specific.
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  • 54
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    Water, air & soil pollution 90 (1996), S. 543-556 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: heavy metals ; solubility ; redox potential ; pH ; soil
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract To assess the mobilities of Pb, Cd, and Zn from a contaminated soil, the effects of redox potential and pH value on metal solubilities were investigated. Both redox potential and pH were found to greatly affect heavy metal solubility in the soil. Results showed that the soil suspension under continuous oxygen aeration for 21 days resulted in increases of redox potential from 290 to 440 mV and pH value from 6.9 to 7.0, respectively. Soluble concentrations of Pb, Cd, and Zn varied with time, and were all lower than 1 mg kg−1. When the soil suspension was aerated with nitrogen, final redox potential was −140 mV and pH value of 7.1. The soluble metal concentrations were slightly higher than those aerated with oxygen. The equilibrium solubility experiments were conducted under three different pH values (3.3, 5.0, 8.0) and three redox potential (325, 0, −100 mV). Results showed that metals were sparingly soluble under alkaline conditions (pH = 8.0). Metal solubilities were higher when under slightly acidic conditions (pH = 5.0), and increased drastically when pH was kept at 3.3. When solubilities were compared under same pH values, it was observed that metal solubilities increased as redox potential decreased. Generally speaking, acidic and reducing conditions were most favorable for metal solubilization, and the effect of pH was more significant than that of redox potential. It was proposed that heavy metals were mostly adsorbed onto Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides. The pH-dependent metal adsorption reaction and the dissolution of Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides under reducing conditions was the mechanism controlling the release of heavy metals from soils.
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  • 55
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    Water, air & soil pollution 97 (1997), S. 205-207 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: mercury ; gold mining ; ecosystems ; methyl-Hg ; cycling ; global sources
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract As described by Jemelov and Ramel (1995), the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) sponsored an investigation of Hg in ecosystems with special emphasis on tropical regions. In these regions small-scale gold mining activities have occupied about 10 million people worldwide who use Hg for extracting gold.
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  • 56
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    Water, air & soil pollution 97 (1997), S. 257-263 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: mercury ; atmosphere ; rainwater ; marine
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Total gaseous mercury (TGM) and rainwater were collected on board of two research vessels (F. S. ALKOR and R.V. BELGICA) positioned 200 km apart in the center of the North Sea during the North Sea Experiment, September 1991. On the F. S. ALKOR (up-wind ship) TGM concentrations ranged from 0.7 to 2.6 ng·m−3 with an average of 1.5 ng m−3 and on the R. V. BELGICA (down-wind ship) TGM ranged from 0.7 to 1.9 ng·m−3 with an average of 1.2 ng·m−3. An average 20% decrease is observed from the up-wind to the down wind ship. which may largely be affected by entrainment into the free troposphere. An overall removal (entrainment) velocity of 0.95 cm·s−1 was calculated for the whole experiment. The average removal velocity was 0.5 cm·s−1 for dry periods and varied between 1 to 5 cm·s−1 during rain events. Rainwater concentrations varied between 5 and 25 ng·1−1. Based on these data an annual wet deposition flux of 1.08 ng Hg cm−2 yr1− was estimated for the North Sea.
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  • 57
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    Water, air & soil pollution 93 (1997), S. 395-408 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: air pollution ; pine bark ; sulphur ; pH ; conductivity ; heavy metals
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Sulphur and heavy metal deposition in northern Finland (= in Lapland) and the Kola Peninsula were surveyed using Scots pine bark samples. Sulphur concentrations in bark close to the Kola smelters were on an average twice as high as on the Finnish side of the border. The Cu and Ni concentrations near the smelters were almost 100-fold the mean values in northern Finland. There was a marked decrease in the sulphur and heavy metal concentrations with increasing distance from the emission sources. The effects of emission from the Kola Peninsula were evident in Finland only close to the border, especially in the eastern parts of Inari (NE corner of Lapland) where the Cu and Ni concentrations were 2- to 6-fold those in western Lapland. The sulphur and heavy metal concentrations in most of northern Finland were low. However were the concentrations of Cr in bark in the SW corner of Lapland considerably high, due to the emissions from the Tornio refined steel plants.
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  • 58
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    Water, air & soil pollution 93 (1997), S. 409-417 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: CO2 evolution ; heavy metals ; loading effect ; metal equivalent
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract In a laboratory study the effects on soil respiration of trace metals (Ni, Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb, Zn) added at loading rates ranging from 0 to 1000μg g−1 were determined. Differences in toxicity with respect to the type of metal salt added were also evaluated. The inhibitory effect on soil respiration differed considerably among the heavy metals and increased with the increasing loading rate. No linear relationships were found between the degree of inhibition and the levels of total and available metals. Toxicity evaluation at 20 and 50% inhibition of soil respiration showed Cu as the most toxic and Mn as the most tolerable metal. A ‘metal equivalent’ was calculated as the sum of the amounts of the available metals weighted to their relative toxicity with respect to the least toxic one: Mn equivalent=Mn+1.9Pb+2.1Ni+2.5Zn+6.7Cd+6.7Cu. The ionic potential of the heavy metals was found to be positively related to the percent inhibition of soil respiration. Chlorides and sulphates appeared to depress soil respiration more than nitrates, the latter counter-balancing the toxic effect of the heavy metals.
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  • 59
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: soil ; pollution ; heavy metals ; smelters ; factoranalysis
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A combined statistical and computergraphic approach is proposed for apportionment and attribution of soil contaminants in complex areas. The field test site lies north of Swansea, south Wales and contains two major pollutant sources, an active nickel refiner and (4 km away) the site of major base metal smelting in the nineteenth century (the Lower Swansea Valley reclamation study area). Soil samples (70 samples, 0–15 cm) were collected on a regular grid of 1000 m interval. They were extracted using 0.05 M diammonium EDTA and the extracts analysed for Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. Soil pH and %organic content were also determined. Factor analysis yielded three groups which explained 73.8% of the data variance (1: Cd, Cu, %OM, Pb, Zn, Ni; 2: Cd, Zn, Mn, pH; 3: Cu, Mn, Co, Ni, Fe). Isoline plots were classifiable into the same three groups. It was concluded that factor 3 contained those elements associated with smelter emissions, factor 1 with contamination from the Lower Swansea Valley and in factor 2 pedogenetic processes control the occurrence of the elements.
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  • 60
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: mercury ; methylmercury ; sediment ; polychaete ; Nereis diversicolor ; methylation ; bioaccumulation ; Scheldt estuary
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Total mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations were determined in sediments and in the polychaete worm Nereis diversicolor at 13 stations of a brackish water intertidal mudflat of the Scheldt estuary. Hg and MeHg concentrations in sediments ranged from 144 to 1192 ng g−1 dw and from 0.8 to 6 ng g−1 dw, respectively. Both Hg and MeHg concentrations increased with an increase of organic matter (OM) content and fine grain fraction. In contrast, Hg accumulation by N. diversicolor was significantly (p 〈 0.05) higher at stations with sandy sediments (mean value: 125 ng g−1 dw) than at stations with muddy sediments (mean value, 80 ng g−1), probably because Hg availability for bioaccumulation at muddy stations was reduced by high OM content of the muddy sediments. MeHg accounted for an average of 0.7% of the total Hg in sediments and 18% of the total Hg in N. diversicolor. Seasonal variations significantly affected Hg concentrations in sediments and MeHg in N. diversicolor. Total Hg concentrations in sediments were significantly (p 〈 0.05) higher in autumn and winter than in spring and summer whereas MeHg concentrations were lowest in winter compared to the other seasons. On the other hand, total Hg concentrations in the worms were lowest in spring whereas MeHg concentrations were significantly (p 〈 0.01) higher in spring and summer than in autumn and winter.
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  • 61
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    Water, air & soil pollution 99 (1997), S. 217-223 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: selective leach ; organic ; humic ; fulvic ; analysis ; mercury ; zinc
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The international reference lake sediment, LKSD-4, was used to compare Hg, organic C and Zn extracted from its ‘soluble organic’ phase by two commonly used reagents: 0.1 M Na4P2O7 solution at pH 10 and 0.5 M NaOH solution at pH 12. While recoveries of Hg and Zn by 0.1 M Na4P2O7 are not affected by changes in sample weight to reagent volume ratio (W/V) or contact time, those by NaOH show a marked dependency. In general, the NaOH leach extracts more organic C and Hg from LKSD-4 but less Zn. Over the range of conditions studied, the NaOH-based method extracted 4.7–9.8% C, 27–103 ng g−1 Hg and 19–69 μg g−1 Zn from LKSD-4, compared to 2.3–2.8% C, 17–24 ng g−1 Hg and 64–72 μg g−1 Zn by the Na4P2O7 leach. Clearly, different groups of organic substances are being dissolved by these two reagents and therefore a comparison of data from different laboratories becomes meaningless. This paper suggests that more research is needed into the exactNature of metal-organic associations extracted by selective leaches and into associated artifacts of extraction such as readsorption phenomena.
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  • 62
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    Water, air & soil pollution 99 (1997), S. 255-263 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: heavy metals ; sediments ; pollution ; resuspension ; release processes ; bioavailability ; anthropogenic ; metal ; residual inetal ; geochemical phases
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The space-time distribution of some pollutants (Cu, Ph, Zn, Cd, Fe, Mn, V, Ni, Cr) in the sludge of the canals of Venice was studied. The contamination levels were comparable to, or higher, than those measured in the most polluted sediments of the Lagoon of Venice Sediments were collected by two different sampling techniques I ) collection of sediment cores (upper 5 cm) by a syringe-type corer, 2) collection by traps, placed on the bottom of the canal Traps pennitted the sampling of sediments essentially resuspended by overlying water turbulence This sediment fraction is subjected to variations of its physicochemical parameters (principally change of redox conditions) and therefore to pollutant exchange at the water/sediment interface The metals principally exchanged during sediment resuspension were Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu These metals have principally an anthropogenic origin and are bound to the most labile geochemical phases of the sediment (such as sulphides), which can be oxidised during sediment resuspension, releasing metals into the water Fe, Cr and Ni were only partially exchanged, while Mn and V were generally not exchanged, a significant fraction of these metals is of natural origin and is bound to the most refractory phases of the sediment.
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  • 63
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    Water, air & soil pollution 95 (1997), S. 381-397 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: lead ; Hubbard Brook ; spodosol ; forest floor ; particles and colloids
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A dynamic simulation based on a simple box model was made to predict Pb transport in spodosols of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Simulated results suggest that labile Pb in the forest floor may be undergoing a rapid loss, and that Pb content may reach an equilibrium within ∼100 years with a steady-state level of approximately 0.2 kg ha-1 (concentration = 1.3 μg g-1). The predicted Pb loss from the forest floor is much higher than the observed Pb export based on zero-tension lysimeters, which are designed to optimize measurement of dissolved substances. It is suspected that lysimeters might have failed to effectively collect particles and colloids. The dissolved Pb2+ loss from the forest floor, which is governed by nonlinear retardation, is insignificant relative to total Pb losses, so linear rate removal of particles and colloids from the forest floor is an adequate approximation of Pb transport. The mineral soil is currently acting as a net sink for the Pb released from the forest floor. The model suggests that Pb content in and Pb output from the mineral soil has been increasing since the 1970s. This increase should continue until a steady-state is reached in about 100 years. Unlike the forest floor, the mineral soil loses its Pb via dissolved forms that are regulated by nonlinear adsorption/desorption retardation.
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  • 64
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: fractionation ; redistribution ; saturation ; kinetics ; heavy metals
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    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Solid-phase transformations of Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni and Zn, added as soluble salts at several levels to two arid-zone soils, were studied over a period of one year. The soils were maintained under a saturated-paste regime and sampled periodically. A selective sequential dissolution procedure was employed to determine the changes in metal distribution among six operationally defined solid-phase fractions. A function, Uts was introduced to measure the fractional attainment of equilibrium of the soils following a perturbation. The direction and rate of redistribution of the added metals in the soils were affected by the nature of the metal, the soil properties and the metal loading level. Cd added to the soils was transferred from the exchangeable (EXC) into the carbonate (CARB) fraction. When soluble Cu, Cr, Ni and Zn were added at low loading levels, metals were transferred from the reducible oxides(RO) bound and easily reducible oxides (ERO) bound fractions and the EXC fraction, into the CARB fraction. However, at the higher loading level, metals were transferred from the EXC and CARB fractions into the organic matter bound (OM), ERO and RO fractions. The Uts function approached lower values as incubation continued but remained removed from 1. The overall flux of metals among fractions was the combined result of the readjustment of the metals in the native soil to changing conditions due to saturation, and the transfer of added soluble metals to the less labile fractions.
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  • 65
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: Acari ; bioindicators ; Gamasida ; heavy metals ; Oribatida ; Scots pine forest
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The soil mites were investigated in the areas covered with dead needles in young Scots pine forests (plant associationLeucobryo-Pinetum), polluted by a copper smelting works at Głogów, and in a control plot. The concentration of heavy metals, mainly copper and lead, was the lowest in the control plot, and increased towards the pollution source. A high concentration of these metals reduced the density of mites and species number of Oribatida and Gamasida, while small concentrations were associated with the increasing abundance of mites and species number of Oribatida. Among mites, the following categories were distinguished: a) sensitive to heavy metals, b) sensitive to a high concentration, but tolerant of small concentrations, and c) tolerant of these metals. The changed vertical distribution of mites in the most polluted soil was also observed, due to accumulation of heavy metals in the Of/h horizon.
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  • 66
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    Water, air & soil pollution 99 (1997), S. 651-659 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: River sediments ; biofilms ; organic micropollutants ; heavy metals ; temporal variations ; biosorption ; accumulation processes
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract In a partly urbanized catchment to the south of Trier, Germany, short term variations in river sediment compounds as well as the bioaccumulation of pollutants on surface associated microbial coatings (biofilms) were investigated weekly during a period of six months. Concentrations of selected heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and for microbial characterisation protein, carbohydrate and uronic acid were analyzed. Sorption processes on biofilms were determined by temporal variations in pollutants and microbial parameters and through the comparison of sorbed substances in biofilms and sediments. The results show, that sorption events on biofilms play an important and dynamic role in spring and summer for transport and accumulation of the investigated pollutants in the aquatic environment. The amount of pollutants sorbed on sediment particles is not only dependent on the particulate bound or solved pollutants in the river water, but is strongly controlled by the changing conditions of the biofilms.
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  • 67
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    Environmental monitoring and assessment 50 (1998), S. 159-171 
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: age ; biomonitoring ; heavy metals ; seabirds
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The effects of age on cadmium concentrations was investigated in Cory's shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, Lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus, and great skuas, Catharacta skua. There was no evidence for the continued accumulation of cadmium with increasing adult age. Adult shearwaters did have higher concentrations of cadmium compared to young fledglings, but there was no significant difference between cadmium concentrations in adult and sub-adult gulls. In addition, the sample of great skuas were of known age (3–22 yrs old) and showed no evidence of increasing cadmium concentrations with adult age in liver or kidney. However, it is possible that age accumulation of cadmium in great skuas was masked by individual dietary preferences overriding the effects of increasing age. It is often assumed that cadmium concentrations continue to accumulate with increasing adult age, but seabirds may have evolved some as yet unknown mechanism for excretion or more rapid turnover of cadmium than previously thought. The implications of this for the use of seabirds as biomonitors is discussed.
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  • 68
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: risk assessment ; chlorinated compound ; environmental ; marine ; exposure ; aquatic toxicity ; monitoring ; trichloroethylene
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This risk assessment on trichloroethylene (TRI) was carried out specifically for the marine environment, according to the methodology laid down in the EU risk assessment Regulation (1488/94) and the Guidance Document of the EU New and Existing Substances Regulation (TGD, 1997). The study consists of the collection and evaluation of data on effects and environmental concentrations from analytical monitoring programs in large rivers and estuaries in the North Sea area. The risk is indicated by the ratio of the "predicted environmental concentrations" (PEC) and the "predicted no effect concentrations" (PNEC) for the marine aquatic environment. In total, 19 studies for fish, 30 studies for invertebrates and 14 studies for algae have been evaluated. Both acute and chronic toxicity studies have been taken into account and the appropriate assessment factors have been used to define a PNEC value of 150 µg/l. Most of the available monitoring data apply to rivers and estuaries and were used to calculate PECs. The most recent data (1991-1995) support a typical PEC of 0.1 µg TRI/l water and a worst case PEC of 3.5 µg TRI/l water. The calculated PEC/PNEC ratios give a safety margin of 40 to 1,500 between the predicted no effect concentration and the exposure concentration. Additional evaluation of environmental fate and bioaccumulation characteristics showed that no concern for food chain accumulation is expected.
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  • 69
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    Environmental monitoring and assessment 55 (1999), S. 389-399 
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: accumulation ; heavy metals ; mine spoils ; vegetation ; soil-plant relationships
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The presence of heavy metals (Cr, Ni and Fe) in soil and accumulated by herbs, shrubs and trees regenerated naturally on the minewaste-dumps of Sukinda chromite mines (TISCO sector) were investigated. There was significant correlationship between Cr and Fe in the soil where a tree species (Catunaregam spinosa) occurred. Guazuma ulmifolia and Diospyros montana also did show significant correlation between leaf, stem and soil for Cr, Ni and Fe. Among the shrubs (Calotropis gigantea, Chromolaena odorata, Phyllanthus reticulatus and Woodfordia fruticosa) significant and positive correlations were obtained for Cr and Ni in soil and iron and nickel in leaf and chromium and nickel in stem. Among the annual herbs, whole plant of tephrosia purpurea and Borrevia articularis showed significant and positive correlation with chromium and nickel with the maximum correlation coefficient value. It was concluded that the above information would be useful in revegetation programmes in subtropical regions having seasonal rainfall.
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  • 70
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: birds ; environmental pollutants ; heavy metals
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Levels of environmental pollutants are usually higher in mainland and coastal areas than in offshore or oceanic islands due to higher inputs from agricultural and industrial sources. Levels of heavy metals are usually higher in adult than in young birds, because they have had longer to accumulate metals in their tissues, and/or because they may eat larger, more contaminated, prey. We examined the levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and selenium in the adults and young of Bonin petrel (Pterodroma hypoleuca), Christmas shearwater (Puffinus nativitatis) and red-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) on Midway Atoll, and adult wedge-tailed shearwater (Puffinus pacificus) on Midway Atoll and on Manana Island (off Oahu) in the northern Pacific. All birds were analyzed individually except for Christmas Shearwater chicks where samples were pooled to obtain sufficient quantities for analysis. Significant (p〈0.05) age-related differences were found for mercury, selenium, manganese and chromium in Bonin petrels, for selenium and mercury in Christmas shearwaters, and for chromium and mercury in Red-tailed Tropicbirds. Lead approached significance for all three species. Adults had higher levels than young except for chromium and manganese in the petrels and arsenic in all three species. There were significant interspecific differences in concentrations of all metals except arsenic for the adults nesting on Midway. Christmas shearwaters had the highest levels of all metals except mercury and chromium. Bonin petrels, the smallest species examined, had mercury levels that were over three times higher than any of the adults of the other three species. For wedge-tailed shearwaters, levels of chromium and lead were significantly higher, and manganese and selenium were lower on Midway than Manana. Knowledge of the foraging ranges and habits of these far-ranging seabirds is inadequately known, but does not currently explain the observed differences among species. We could not find a consistent pattern of differences between the burrow nesting species (Bonin petrel, Wedge-tailed shearwater) and the surface nesting tropicbirds. There was no consistent pairwise correlation between any metals across all species.
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  • 71
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    Environmental monitoring and assessment 59 (1999), S. 225-247 
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: cross-cultural ; perceived risk ; risk ; risk analysis ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This study examines perceived risk data from the U.S., China, Japan, and South Korea. These data are then compared with similar results collected from previous studies. Psychometric scaling scores from Burkino Faso (a West African Country), France, Norway, and Hungary have been analyzed and compared with results from our study. The data reveal certain risk events like nuclear weapons, war, and AIDS to have high perceived risks in all countries. These data also show that many of the events have dissimilar perceived risks in different countries. The conclusions also show some countries have higher over all levels of perceive risk (South Korea) while others like the United States display generally lower values.
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  • 72
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    Environmental monitoring and assessment 59 (1999), S. 321-330 
    ISSN: 1573-2959
    Keywords: agar diffusion assay ; Arabian Gulf ; chromogenic bacteria ; heavy metals ; toxicity
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A simple method – direct agar diffusion assay – was optimised for rapid assessment of heavy metal toxicity to marine chromogenic and non-chromogenic bacteria. The procedure involved spotting of a 10 microliter test solution on the seeded agar plate and incubation of the plates at 30°C to accelerate bacterial growth. Under optimum conditions, test results were obtainable within 12–18 hr instead of 96 hr incubation time generally required for a marine bacterial assay by conventional agar plate methods. A range of sixteen heavy metals, each at 5 different concentrations was tested. Toxicity was demonstrated by the formation of a clear zone of growth inhibition around the point of application. Toxicity of tested chemicals could be easily demonstrated at concentrations as low as 0.1 μg per spot on the agar plate. A dose dependent relation between metal concentration (μg/spot) and the diameter of the clear zone on agar plate was observed, suggesting potential of this method as an easy and economical tool in quantitative toxicology studies.
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  • 73
    ISSN: 1573-2967
    Keywords: Activated carbon ; lead ; chromium ; adsorption ; adsorbent ; wastewater treatment ; low cost adsorbent
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The waste slurry generated in fertilizer plants in India has been converted into a cheap carbonaceous adsorbent material. The prepared adsorbent has been characterised and used for the removal of lead and chromium metals. The kinetics of adsorption and the extent of adsorption at equilibrium are dependent on the physical and chemical characteristics of the adsorbate, adsorbent and experimental system. Results of laboratory scale studies conducted to delineate the effect of such parameters on the kinetics of adsorption of metal ions are reported. Parameters evaluated include: hydronium ion concentration, temperature, initial adsorbate concentration, size of adsorbent, and amount of adsorbent. On the basis of these studies the various physical parameters such as effective diffusion coefficient, activation energies and entropy of activation are evaluated, as these provide some information regarding the mechanistic aspects. Mass transfer coefficient values suggest a rapid transport of the adsorbate from bulk to solid phase.
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  • 74
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    Environmental modeling and assessment 4 (1999), S. 165-178 
    ISSN: 1573-2967
    Keywords: exposure assessment ; ground water contamination ; risk assessment ; spatial variability ; geostatistical analysis ; deterministic modeling
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This paper describes a new methodology for modeling contaminant transport in ground water for (1) better quantifying the magnitude of exposure in a contaminated aquifer, (2) characterizing the spatial and temporal variation of exposure in a heterogeneous aquifer, and (3) providing more tools for characterizing population exposure. This methodology is also applied to a semi-hypothetical case study.
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  • 75
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    Environmental and ecological statistics 3 (1996), S. 81-97 
    ISSN: 1573-3009
    Keywords: gamma distribution ; left censoring ; product limit estimate ; risk assessment ; truncated normal distribution
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A frequent assumption in environmental risk assessment is that the underlying distribution of an analyte concentration is lognormal. However, the distribution of a random variable whose log has a t-distribution has infinite mean. Because of the proximity of the standard normal and t-distribution, this suggests that a distribution such as the gamma or truncated normal, with smaller right tail probabilities, might make a better statistical model for mean estimation than the lognormal. In order to assess the effect of departures from lognormality on lognormal-based statistics, we simulated complete lognormal, truncated normal, and gamma data for various sample sizes and coefficients of variation. In these cases, departures from lognormality were not easily detected with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Various lognormal-based estimates and tests were compared with alternate methods based on the ordinary sample mean and standard error. The examples were also considered in the presence of random left censoring with the mean and standard error of the product limit estimate replacing the ordinary sample mean and standard error. The results suggest that in the estimation of or tests about a mean, if the assumption of lognormality is at all suspect, then lognormal-based approaches may not be as good as the alternative methods.
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  • 76
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: mercury ; body distribution ; feather concentrations ; body burden ; tern chicks
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: We studied mercury concentrations and amounts in tissues of 19 starved young Common Tern chicks (median age 4 days) and in eggs from the same colony. Concentrations and burden were similar between eggs and newly hatched chicks. Mercury concentrations were highest in down, which contained at least 38% of the body mercury. The mercury burden of the whole body and of the tissues as well as the concentration in down increased with age and body mass, indicating the importance of down as an elimination pathway. Conversion ratios between mercury concentrations in tissues and the whole chick body varied according to the contamination level.
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  • 77
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    Ecotoxicology 5 (1996), S. 59-81 
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: pesticides ; synergism ; risk assessment ; wildlife
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Reviews of pesticide usage survey data and vertebrate wildlife and honeybee poisoning incident schemes in the UK show that there is considerable potential for wildlife to be exposed to combinations of agricultural pesticides. According to the published literature the toxicity of many pesticide combinations is at least additive. In some cases pesticide mixtures, particularly those involving insecticides, have been shown to be synergistic, with reported increases in toxicity of up to 100-fold. However, these effects are species, time and dose dependent and are therefore difficult to predict routinely. It is suggested that risk assessments should routinely take additive toxicity into account and those based on synergism should be targeted at those mixtures for which a further defined increase in toxicity would result in a high-risk classification. In order to support this risk assessment approach there is a need to develop and validate a standard in vivo test in order to confirm the interaction in those cases where additive or synergistic toxicity results in a high-risk classification.
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  • 78
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    Ecotoxicology 5 (1996), S. 139-144 
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: ED point ; NOEL ; risk assessment ; pesticides
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: The availability and use of ED point and NOEL values in ecotoxicological data submitted to the UK Pesticides Safety Directorate is explored. In first tier data normally submitted for pesticide registration, ED points such as EC/LC/LD50s are commonly available from acute laboratory toxicity studies conducted using birds, small mammals, fish, aquatic invertebrates, plants, honeybees and earthworms. These ED points are subsequently used for hazard classification of the pesticide and in toxicity: exposure ratio (TER) calculations required during the acute risk assessment. Although NOELs can often be available from the same first tier data, they are generally not used. However, NOELs commonly available from higher tier chronic toxicity studies such as chronic fish, Daphnia reproduction and avian reproduction studies, are used in TER calculations to assess chronic risk. The statistical limitations of the NOEL are recognized and the regulatory implications of replacing the NOEL with an alternative ED point are discussed.
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  • 79
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: fish ; mercury ; natural selection ; allozyme ; population
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Measurements of the differential tolerance between enzyme genotypes and shifts in allozyme frequencies in populations from contaminated habitats have prompted the use of allozymes as markers of population-level toxicant effects. However, such studies often do not consider other factors that influence allele frequencies, including natural clines, migration, the intensity and specificity of selection and toxicant-induced genetic bottlenecks. In addition, selection components other than survival are not included. Consequently, the associated conclusions remain speculative. To assess this approach rigorously, a simulation study was conducted with the mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) GPI-2 locus. Laboratory studies have shown the GPI-238/38 homozygote at this locus to be less tolerant than other genotypes during acute exposure to mercury. The GPI-2100/100 genotype has also been shown to have a reproductive disadvantage at lower mercury concentrations. Simple and then more complex models were used to quantify the relative effects of viability selection, random genetic drift and migration on the GPI-238 allele frequency. Simulations were also performed to assess the contribution of sexual and fecundity selection. A simple population model suggested that viability selection plays a greater role than does mortality-driven, genetic drift in the decrease of the sensitive allele under the conditions of this study. A more complex, stochastic model indicated that no significant mortality-driven drift was taking place in this system. In both models, migration mitigated the effect of selection. Sexual and fecundity selection had little effect on the allele frequencies in these simulations. We conclude that, provided the system under study is clearly understood, shifts in allele frequency can indicate the population-level effects of pollutants.
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  • 80
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: spectacled eider (Somateria fischeri) ; threatened ; lead ; Alaska
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract We collected, 342 blood samples from spectacled eiders (Somateria fischeri) on their breeding grounds in western Alaska from late May through to early August 1993–1995. Lead concentrations of ≥0.50 p.p.m. wet weight were found in the blood of 20% of the adult female eiders, 2% of the adult males and 6% of the ducklings. Lead was detected (≥0.02 p.p.m.) more frequently in the blood of adult females than in adult males or ducklings and the maximum concentrations were 14.37, 0.50 and 4.28 p.p.m. wet weight, respectively. In adult females, there was a significant difference in the proportion of detectable blood lead concentrations between three collection times (arrival/nesting, hatch and brood rearing), with the highest proportion (92%) occurring at hatch. Nine hens with blood lead concentrations of ≥0.50 p.p.m. were captured a second time several weeks to 1 year later. In the hens sampled twice at intervals of several weeks, the blood lead concentrations increased and declined at mean daily rates of 1.10 and 0.94, respectively. The lead concentrations in the blood of adults were not correlated with body weights. Radiographs were taken of 119 eiders and corresponding blood samples from 98 of these birds were analysed for lead. Ingested shot was seen in X-rays of 12 adults and three ducklings and, of the 13 blood samples tested, all had detectable lead concentrations. Of the birds without radiographic evidence of ingested shot, 84% of the adult females, 19% of the adult males and 17% of the ducklings had detectable lead concentrations in their blood. Breeding ground exposure of waterfowl to lead shot is unusual and is of particular concern in spectacled eiders because of their threatened status and declining numbers in western Alaska.
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  • 81
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    Ecotoxicology 9 (2000), S. 157-168 
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: pyridaben ; water-effect ratio ; WER ; FIFRA ; hazard assessment ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The toxicity and environmental fate of the insecticide-miticide, pyridaben were investigated using both standardized laboratory procedures and outdoor studies with natural water. Outdoor studies provide a more realistic exposure scenario to aquatic organisms and any toxicity is a response to actual exposure concentrations resulting from the natural degradation and dissipation of the chemical. This paper describes the environmental chemistry/fate and aquatic toxicity of pyridaben. The subsequent paper describes the results of the outdoor aquatic toxicity studies and the use of the water-effect ratio in hazard/risk assessment. Environmental fate studies indicate that pyridaben has a low water solubility and high Kd and Koc values, which favors partitioning from water onto soil and sediment. Pyridaben is stable to hydrolysis but has a short photolysis half-life in water (〈30 min) and soil (∼11 d). Furthermore, pyridaben has a short half-life in soil (12 to 14 d) when applied in the field to citrus crops. Laboratory studies with constant 48- to 96-h exposures to pyridaben show it is acutely toxic to fish (Lepomis macrochirus, Pimephales promelas, Oncorhynchus mykiss, Cyprinodon variegatus) and invertebrates (Daphnia magna, Mysidopsis bahia). Invertebrates are more sensitive (lower LC50s) than fish to pyridaben, and most mortalities occur 〈24 h for fish and 〈72 h for invertebrates. Chronic laboratory studies indicate that the MATCs for pyridaben and D. magna, M. bahia and P. promelas were 0.12, 0.15 and 0.39 μg/L, respectively. Acute-to-chronic ratios for pyridaben are low for fish and invertebrates, indicating a low potential for residual activity. Chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms is not an issue after application in the field because exposures tend to be brief.
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    Ecotoxicology 9 (2000), S. 169-177 
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: pyridaben ; water-effect ratio ; FIFRA ; hazard assessment ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Outdoor acute aquatic toxicity studies with pyridaben and bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) and mysid (Mysidopsis bahia) showed that the 96-h LC50s in site-specific water were significantly greater than in classical laboratory studies. In addition, outdoor acute studies showed that pyridaben degrades rapidly in water, in hours, which supports other laboratory and field studies on the fate of pyridaben in aquatic systems. Chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms is not an issue after application in the field because exposures will be brief. The water-effect ratio (WER) of site-specific to laboratory-water 96-h LC50s for L. macrochirus and M. bahia were 18.5 and 24.5, respectively. The lowest WER was used as an application factor with the laboratory LC50 values of several other aquatic organisms to develop “adjusted” site-specific LC50 values. Comparison of the distribution of “adjusted” LC50 values with a distribution of potential environmental exposure concentrations for pyridaben in water indicates minimal acute risk to aquatic organisms. When only acute laboratory data are available, the WER approach is a relevant and realistic means for determining an application factor and for estimating the aquatic hazard/risk assessment of non-persistent pesticides, because it considers a host of factors that affect bioavailability and subsequent toxicity.
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  • 83
    ISSN: 1573-3017
    Keywords: lead ; waterfawl ; sediment ; toxicity ; mining ; risk assessment ; swans ; ALAD ; protoporphyrin
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract For many years, waterfowl have been poisoned by lead after ingesting contaminated sediment in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin, in Idaho. Results of studies on waterfowl experimentally fed this sediment were combined with results from field studies conducted in the Basin to relate sediment lead concentration to injury to waterfowl. The first step in the model estimated exposure as the relation of sediment lead concentration to blood lead concentration in mute swans (Cygnus olor), ingesting 22% sediment in a rice diet. That rate corresponded to the 90th percentile of sediment ingestion estimated from analyses of feces of tundra swans (Olor columbianus) in the Basin. Then, with additional laboratory studies on Canada geese (Branta canadensis) and mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) fed the sediment, we developed the general relation of blood lead to injury in waterfowl. Injury was quantified by blood lead concentrations, ALAD (δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase) activity, protoporphyrin concentrations, hemoglobin concentrations, hepatic lead concentrations, and the prevalence of renal nuclear inclusion bodies. Putting the exposure and injury relations together provided a powerful tool for assessing hazards to wildlife in the Basin. The no effect concentration of sediment lead was estimated as 24 mg/kg and the lowest effect level as 530 mg/kg. By combining our exposure equation with data on blood lead concentrations measured in moribund tundra swans in the Basin, we estimated that some mortality would occur at a sediment lead concentration as low as 1800 mg/kg.
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  • 84
    ISSN: 1573-1642
    Keywords: decomposition ; heavy metals ; litterbags ; nitrification ; nitrogen mineralization ; urbanization
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Surveying , Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract We investigated litter mass loss and soil nitrogen (N)-transformation rates in oak stands along a 130-km, urban-rural transect originating in New York City to examine the relationship between changes in these parameters and previously documented differences in soil temperature, heavy metal and total salt concentrations, and soil biota. Reference litter from a rural site was placed in litterbags, and rates of mass loss and changes in N concentration in litter residues were measured over a 6-month period. Net N-mineralization and nitrification rates were measured in A horizon soils using laboratory incubations under constant moisture and temperature. Both mass loss (76%) and N release (65%) from litterbags reached their maximum in urban stands, whereas net N-mineralization rates were 2.3-fold higher than in rural A horizon soils. Litter fragmentation by earthworms and higher soil temperatures are potential causes of the higher mass loss rates observed in urban stands. The higher releases of N measured in the urban litterbags could be a result of their faster mass loss rates, exogenous inputs of N from atmospheric deposition, a relatively low heterotrophic demand for N, or a combination of these factors. The results of this study suggest that in comparison with rural stands, urban forests are characterized by comparatively high rates of litter decomposition, and may also be characterized by comparatively high rates of N mineralization. Additional studies are needed to test whether these effects are common to urban environments in general.
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  • 85
    ISSN: 1573-1502
    Keywords: air quality ; particulates ; sulfur dioxide ; lead ; Monte Carlo ; benefits transfer
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Economics
    Notes: Abstract This study is an initial effort to estimate one important category of benefits of environmental improvements in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), those related to the effects of air pollution on human health. Our estimates are derived from data on ambient air quality in selected CEE locations, together with a model that links these ambient conditions to physical impacts on health and attaches economic values (in dollar terms) to these impacts. Given data limitations, our focus here is on three pollutants: particulates (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and lead (Pb). Our data set includes ambient concentrations for these pollutants in four CEE countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine. Given the ambient data, dose-response functions taken from the clinical and epidemiological literature in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe are used to generate estimates of the change in physical effects. These effects then are given an economic value by applying two approaches for scaling unit valuation figures applicable to the U.S. A Monte Carlo model is constructed to propagate the uncertainties of the dose-response functions and unit values to obtain confidence intervals on the total benefits from pollutant reductions in each country. We examine scenarios where the CEE countries improve ambient conditions for the pollutants in question to meet European Community (EC) standards and then compare these scenarios to ones involving uniform percentage ambient reductions across locations in each country.
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  • 86
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    Natural hazards 17 (1998), S. 1-15 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: risk assessment ; risk cartography ; volcanic hazard ; GIS ; Vesuvius ; Italy
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract This paper assesses the risk to people and property from lava flow hazard in the Vesuvian area of Italy using a Geographical Information System (GIS). The intense urbanisation and dense population near Mt. Vesuvius make the area very hazardous. Due to the large amount of available data, GIS is an essential tool to facilitate risk evaluation and constant monitoring of the zone. This analysis is based mainly on a lava flow hazard map of Mt. Vesuvius, determined from volcanic activity between 1631 and 1944. A land-use zonation map of the area was created in order to show areal distribution of the resources, built-up centres and population. For each of the 17 municipalities in the area, demographic and urban data were entered into the GIS database and linked to each appropriate geographic unit in order to create a set of reference maps at the 1:50 000 scale. The lava flow hazard map was overlain on the land use map, and spatial and numerical information of risk were extracted from the resulting maps.
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  • 87
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    Natural hazards 18 (1998), S. 57-76 
    ISSN: 1573-0840
    Keywords: tsunamis ; historical earthquakes ; risk assessment ; Caribbean Sea
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geography , Geosciences
    Notes: Abstract The Caribbean Sea region is well known for its hurricanes, and less known for tsunamis. As part of its responsibilities in hazard assessment and mitigation, the U.S.A. Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Puerto Rico Civil Defense, funded a pilot study to perform a numerical simulation of the 1918 Puerto Rico tsunami, one of the most deadly in the region. As part of the study a review has been made of the tectonic and tsunamigenic environment around Puerto Rico, the fault parameters for the 1918 event have been estimated, and a numerical simulation has been done using a tsunami propagation and runup model obtained through the Tsunami Inundation Modeling for Exchange (TIME) program. Model results have been compared with the observed runup values all along the west coast of Puerto Rico.
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  • 88
    ISSN: 1572-9591
    Keywords: fusion ; inertial confinement ; tritium ; high power density ; advanced fuels ; monte carlo ; particle transport ; pool-type reactor ; target designs ; liquid metals ; lithium ; radiation damage ; environmental effects ; safety considerations ; radioactive releases ; risk assessment ; neutron source ; first wall
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A low-tritium-inventory, high-power-density, pool-type chamber approach to inertial confinement fusion is introduced. The concept uses target designs with internal tritium and3He breeding, eliminating the need for a lithium-breeding blanket. The fraction of the fusion energy carried out by neutrons is estimated as 10%, compared with 70% in a typical D-T system, and the neutron spectrum is softer. Liquid metals other than lithium that are less chemically reactive, such as lead, can be used for first-wall protection. The reduced neutron component and the elimination of the need for a thick lithium blanket for tritium breeding lead to higher power densities and more compact chamber designs. The radiation damage at the first structural wall is reduced, leading to potentially longer wall lifetimes. A significant environmental advantage in terms of reduced radioactive release risks under operational and accident conditions is identified, primarily due to the one to two orders of magnitude reduction in the tritium inventories compared with D-T-based systems.
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  • 89
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: copper ; element flux ; heavy metals ; Pinus ; soil pollution ; understorey vegetation
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Distribution and fluxes of copper within Pinus sylvestris stands were studied during 1992–1994 along a heavy-metal pollution gradient in south-western Finland. The stands are situated at distances of 0.5, 4 and 8 km from a copper-nickel smelter that started operating in 1945 at Harjavalta. According to the results, copper concentrations in the soil, in the understorey vegetation and in the trees increased steeply towards the smelter. Almost 50 years' accumulation of heavy metals in the soil has caused direct toxic effects to soil microbes, thus decreasing decomposition and nutrient mineralisation. During the past few years, sulphur and heavy metal emissions from the copper and nickel smelter have been radically decreased. However, the heavy metals which have been accumulating in the soil for decades continue to affect the vegetation for a long time through soil processes. Consequently, long-term accumulation in the soil has to be taken into account when determining the critical loads of forest ecosystems for heavy metals.
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  • 90
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    Water, air & soil pollution 85 (1995), S. 2515-2520 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: Regionalization ; critical loads ; forest ; uncertainty ; risk assessment
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The steady-state model PROFILE was used to perform Monte Carlo simulations of critical loads of acidity and exceedances of forest soils for 128 sites in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. Statistical tests showed that 100 sites had normal distributed critical loads and exceedances and that the variance of these parameters was statistically equal for all sites. Pooled estimates of the standard deviation was 0.19 and 0.31 kmolc ha−1 yr−1 for the critical loads and exceedances, respectively. Introduction of uncertainties, expressed as confidence intervals, in the cumulative distribution function for critical loads showed that overlaps between percentiles were substantial. The 5%-ile was systematically equal to the 57%-ile using a 67% confidence interval and equal to the 87%-ile when a 95% confidence level was chosen. The overlaps of percentiles cause a reduction of acidic deposition according to the mean value of the 5%-ile to protect only 68% of the ecosystem area with an 84% probability and not a guaranteed protection of 95% as if uncertainties did not exist. Thus, uncertainties make it possible to advocate reductions to levels of deposition below the 5%-tile of critical loads.
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  • 91
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    Water, air & soil pollution 95 (1997), S. 381-397 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: lead ; Hubbard Brook ; spodosol ; forest floor ; particles and colloids
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract A dynamic simulation based on a simple box model was made to predict Pb transport in spodosols of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Simulated results suggest that labile Pb in the forest floor may be undergoing a rapid loss, and that Pb content may reach an equilibrium within ∼100 years with a steady-state level of approximately 0.2 kg ha−1 (concentration = 1.3 μg g−1). The predicted Pb loss from the forest floor is much higher than the observed Pb export based on zero-tension lysimeters, which are designed to optimize measurement of dissolved substances. It is suspected that lysimeters might have failed to effectively collect particles and colloids. The dissolved Pb2+ loss from the forest floor, which is governed by nonlinear retardation, is insignificant relative to total Pb losses, so linear rate removal of particles and colloids from the forest floor is an adequate approximation of Pb transport. The mineral soil is currently acting as a net sink for the Pb released from the forest floor. The model suggests that Pb content in and Pb output from the mineral soil has been increasing since the 1970s. This increase should continue until a steady-state is reached in about 100 years. Unlike the forest floor, the mineral soil loses its Pb via dissolved forms that are regulated by nonlinear adsorption/desorption retardation.
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  • 92
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    Water, air & soil pollution 95 (1997), S. 337-351 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: transport ; soil columns ; breakthrough curves ; lead ; proton
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Column experiments have been extensively used in transport studies of major cations but few investigations are available on migration through soils of strongly retained species that are environmentally relevant (like heavy metals). By presenting some selected experiments (lead and proton step-breakthrough tests in different conditions), this study shows that the soil-column technique is also applicable in the case of species which exhibit very large retention factors. The use of very small soil columns (about 0.4 mL of pore volumes) combined with relatively high flow rates (0.1–0.3 mL min−1 ) allows to observe the entire breakthrough curve (adsorption and desorption front up to 5000 pore volumes) in reasonable experimental time, in reproducible conditions and without experimental drawbacks. In the adopted experimental conditions no kinetic effects, related to diffuse transport and sorption reaction were recognized; moreover, Peclet number was higher than 60. Consequently, it was possible to calculate the equilibrium isotherms from the diffuse fronts of the breakthrough. Knowledge that can be derived, concerning the reversibility of the adsorption process, the influence of complexation on the adsorption, the kinetics of complex formation, and the effect of dissolution on proton transport, is also discussed.
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  • 93
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: acid rain ; batch experiment ; Freundlich isotherm ; lysimeter experiment ; mercury ; simulation model
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Increasing mercury contents are reported from freshwater systems and fish in northern Europe and North America. Mercury input from soils is a major source with the leaching being affected by increased atmospheric mercury deposition compared to pre-industrial times and by other environmental conditions such as acid rain. The results of a mathematical model-calculation of vertical inorganic Hg(II) leaching in a Scandinavian iron-humus podzol under different atmospheric input rates of mercury are presented. Leaching under background rain conditions was calculated to be considerably stronger than under acid rain conditions. Increasing fractions of deposited soluble or solute atmospheric mercury were leached from the O f(h)-horizon with decreasing soil content of soluble mercury under acid rain conditions; this effect was less pronounced under background rain conditions. The steady state concentrations of soluble mercury of the upper soil horizons were calculated and compared with the actual concentrations of total (= soluble + insoluble mercury) and extractable (= estimate of soluble) mercury measured in these horizons. The results indicate that even if the deposition of airborne mercury to soil is strongly reduced, the total mercury content of the soil decreases only slowly. It may take decades or even centuries before a new steady state concentration of total mercury is established in the soil. The decrease of the mercury concentration in the O f(h)-horizon is probably largely dependent on the turnover of organic matter, binding most of the deposited airborne mercury in an insoluble form. Hence, present day mercury leaching is likely to be dominated by mercury deposited during former times and temporarily retained in an insoluble form in the organic matter.
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  • 94
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    Water, air & soil pollution 96 (1997), S. 61-71 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: allotment gardens ; dustfall ; ground water ; heavy metals ; oil refinery ; soil ; vegetables
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract In the period 1984–1990 the following vegetables were grown: red beet, carrot and parsley in four allotment gardens of Płock city (Central Poland), situated near the refinery and petrochemical works. Cadmium, lead, copper, chromium, zinc and manganese concentrations were determined in the leaves and roots of vegetables. The heavy metal accumulation in the soil, dustfall (measure of air pollution), and ground water was determined. The quality of the vegetable yield, notably of the leaves, was low. This was mainly due to the excessive chromium and cadmium content in the leaves. Accumulation of heavy metals was relatively low in the soil, rather high in the ground water and variable in the dust.
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  • 95
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: atmospheric aerosol ; acid digestion procedure ; atomic absorption spectrometry ; heavy metal ; lead
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract This paper presents a simple, reliable, economical, safe, accurate and reproducible method for atmospheric aerosol lead determination in glass fiber filters, consisting on an acid digestion procedure and atomic absorption spectrometry quantification. The acid digestion is accelerated by the use of a microwave oven with capped Teflon PFA vessels, and a two steps power and time program. The mixture of 10 mL HNO3 and 1 mL HF was selected between many tries, for both economic and environmental reasons. The use of direct standards for quantification is proposed instead of added standards on filters, using background correction (deuterium lamp). The filter lead content quantification was carried out through blank analyses. Lead determinations were carried out then in 2629 samples of atmospheric aerosol at three sampling points in the city of Cartagena (Spain), from 1990 to 1994. We present the annual average of these values for each year and sampling location.
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  • 96
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    Water, air & soil pollution 96 (1997), S. 1-16 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: heavy metals ; pollution ; sandy soils ; zinc smelter
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Sandy soils, in the border area of Belgium and the Netherlands (the Kempen region), are heavily contaminated by atmospheric deposition of cadmium and zinc from nearby smelters. Groundwater contamination by leaching from these low retention soils is subject of study. There are reports of high cadmium and zinc concentrations in groundwater in the area, but in most cases the direct sources are unknown. In an attempt to predict present or future risk of groundwater contamination by soil leaching, metal binding processes (retardation) were studied that are specific for these soil types under the existing acidifying conditions. From four fields nine contaminated profiles were sampled and analyzed for cadmium and zinc. Average concentrations of 131 μg g-1 zinc and 1.6 μg g-1 cadmium with maximum values of 2989 μg g-1 respectively 16.3 μg g-1 were found. In addition pH and contents of organic matter, aluminium, iron, and manganese were determined. The relative importance of these soil parameters for metal retardation is derived from the profiles. The data show that organic matter is the most important soil component for binding cadmium and zinc. Adsorption of cadmium and zinc on aluminium, iron and manganese (hydr) oxides appears to be of minor importance at low pH (〈5.5).
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  • 97
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    Water, air & soil pollution 96 (1997), S. 1-16 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: heavy metals ; pollution ; sandy soils ; zinc smelter
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Sandy soils, in the border area of Belgium and the Netherlands (the Kempen region), are heavily contaminated by atmospheric deposition of cadmium and zinc from nearby smelters. Groundwater contamination by leaching from these low retention soils is subject of study. There are reports of high cadmium and zinc concentrations in groundwater in the area, but in most cases the direct sources are unknown. In an attempt to predict present or future risk of groundwater contamination by soil leaching, metal binding processes (retardation) were studied that are specific for these soil types under the existing acidifying conditions. From four fields nine contaminated profiles were sampled and analyzed for cadmium and zinc. Average concentrations of 131μg g−1 zinc and 1.6μg g−1 cadmium with maximum values of 2989μg g−1 respectively 16.3μg g−1 were found. In addition pH and contents of organic matter, aluminium, iron, and manganese were determined. The relative importance of these soil parameters for metal retardation is derived from the profiles. The data show that organic matter is the most important soil component for binding cadmium and zinc. Adsorption of cadmium and zinc on aluminium, iron and manganese (hydr) oxides appears to be of minor importance at low pH (〈5.5).
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  • 98
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    Water, air & soil pollution 96 (1997), S. 39-59 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: acid mine drainage ; heavy metals ; jarosite ; soils ; Sweden
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract The discharge of acidic mine drainage waters onto a hillslope in Dalarna, central Sweden, has lead to the contamination of the podzol soils with Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn and sulfate. Samples from contaminated and reference soils have been collected for chemical and mineralogical analyses. Jarosite is identified by x-ray diffraction analysis as a precipitate in the upper horizons (A, E, B) of the contaminated soils, where the soil acidity (pHKCl∼2.6) promotes jarosite stability. The sequential chemical extraction of soil samples indicates that, in the reference A horizon, Cu, Pb, Ni and Zn are bound primarily to cation exchange sites and organic matter. In the A horizon of the contaminated soils closest to the rock dump, metal partitioning is dominated by the Fe oxide fractions, despite the high organic matter content; Pb is almost completely bound to crystalline Fe oxides, possibly adsorbed to Fe oxides or occuring in a jarosite solid solution. In the reference B and C horizons, Cu, Ni and Zn are primarily adsorbed/coprecipitated in the Fe oxide fractions, while Pb remains with a large fraction bound to organic matter. In the Fe-rich B horizon of the contaminated soils, the partitioning of the metals in cation exchange sites and to organic matter has greatly increased relative to the reference soils, resulting from the mobilization of organo-metal complexes down the profile.
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  • 99
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    Water, air & soil pollution 96 (1997), S. 61-71 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: allotment gardens ; dustfall ; ground water ; heavy metals ; oil refinery ; soil ; vegetables
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract In the period 1984–1990 the following vegetables were grown: red beet, carrot and parsley in four allotment gardens of Płock city (Central Poland), situated near the refinery and petrochemical works. Cadmium, lead, copper, chromium, zinc and manganese concentrations were determined in the leaves and roots of vegetables. The heavy metal accumulation in the soil, dustfall (measure of air pollution), and ground water was determined. The quality of the vegetable yield, notably of the leaves, was low. This was mainly due to the excessive chromium and cadmium content in the leaves. Accumulation of heavy metals was relatively low in the soil, rather high in the ground water and variable in the dust.
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  • 100
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    Water, air & soil pollution 98 (1997), S. 241-254 
    ISSN: 1573-2932
    Keywords: coal ; deposition ; emission ; mercury ; municipal solidwaste
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Different species of mercury have different physical/chemical properties and thus behave quite differently in air pollution control equipment and in the atmosphere. In general, emissions of mercury from coal combustion sources are approximately 20–50% elemental mercury (Hg°) and 50–80% divalent mercury (Hg(II)), which may be predominantly HgCl2. Emissions of mercury from waste incinerators are approximately 10–20% Hg° and 75–85% Hg(II). The partitioning of mercury in flue gas between the elemental and divalent forms may be dependent on the concentration of particulate carbon, HCl and other pollutants in the stack emissions. The emission of mercury from combustion facilities depends on the species in the exhaust stream and the type of air pollution control equipment used at the source. Air pollution control equipment for mercury removal at combustion facilities includes activated carbon injection, sodium sulfide injection and wet lime/limestone flue gas desulfurization. While Hg(II) is water-soluble and may be removed from the atmosphere by wet and dry deposition close to combustion sources, the combination of a high vapor pressure and low water-solubility facilitate the long-range transport of Hg° in the atmosphere. Background mercury in the atmosphere is predominantly Hg°. Elemental mercury is eventually removed from the atmosphere by dry deposition onto surfaces and by wet deposition after oxidation to water- soluble, divalent mercury.
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