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This undergraduate textbook examines environmental pollution ranging from our homes to the global environment. Completely updated and with over 50% new and rewritten material, this new edition assesses the international scope of pollution, including water, climate change, acidification, energy, solid and hazardous waste, persistent chemicals, and pesticides. The pollutants of current major concern are examined, including plastics and electronic waste. Both the impacts and the sources of pollution are addressed, as well as governmental, corporate, and personal responsibility for pollution. Pollution prevention is emphasized throughout, but students will come to see that prevention is not enough. The text moves on to examine a circular economy with closed-loop systems, where by-products are reused, wastes become raw materials, water is recycled, and energy is recovered from waste energy. Understanding Environmental Pollution engages students with the idea that humanity holds the tools to confronting the daunting pollution issues by considering a circular economy.
List of contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and acronyms; 1. Understanding pollution; 2. Reducing pollution to reduce risk; 3. Chemical toxicity; 4. Chemical exposures and risk assessment; 5. Ambient air pollution; 6. Acid deposition; 7. Global warming and ocean acidification; 8. Energy and pollution; 9. Stratospheric ozone depletion; 10. Water pollution; 11. Drinking water pollution; 12. Solid waste; 13. Hazardous waste; 14. Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals; 15. Metals; 16. Pesticides; 17. Indoor air pollution; 18. Zero waste, zero emissions; Appendix. Chemistry - basic concepts; Index.
About the author
Marquita K. Hill holds a Ph.D. in comparative biochemistry from the University of California, Davis. She was assistant and then associate professor in the biochemistry department at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. Later, at the University of Maine's Department of Chemical Engineering, she conducted research funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Then, after educating herself as an environmental scientist, she taught courses in environmental pollution, which led to the text Understanding Environmental Pollution. She was co-founder of the Green Campus Consortium of Maine, an organization working toward sustainable environmental management in Maine's higher-education institutions. For nine years she served on an advisory committee for International Paper's mill in Skowhegan, Maine. During those same years she was a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Summary
This undergraduate textbook examines environmental pollution ranging from our homes to the global environment. Completely updated and with over 50% new and rewritten material, this edition assesses the international scope of pollution, including air and water pollution, climate change, energy, solid and hazardous waste, and pollution at home.
Additional text
'The fourth edition of Understanding Environmental Pollution provides a comprehensive and straightforward introduction to a wide range of environmental topics, including toxicity and risk assessment; a survey of air, water, and land pollution; energy use; and global change. A unique and intriguing focus of this book is the emphasis not merely on pollution reduction but on switching to a circular economy that features closed-loop, zero-waste, zero-emission systems and processes.' Usha Rao, St Joseph's University
Report
Review of previous edition: 'This book, aimed mainly at students, provides a thorough background to pollution, from global issues to personal pollution in the home ... This book provides an excellent introduction to the subject, providing the right information to enable students to evaluate environmental problems for themselves.' Environmental Assessment Magazine
