The post-Bhopal and post-9/11 transformations in chemical emergency prevention and response policy in the United States

The United States' approach to incident prevention and response to hazardous chemical facilities has undergone two major transformations in the last 20 years. The first was triggered by the Bhopal tragedy in 1984, which led to major changes within the US chemical industry and a series of Federal laws and regulations intended to prevent major chemical accidents. A more recent transformation is currently underway in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. It involves the advent of various security-related requirements affecting many of the same facilities covered under the existing accident prevention rules. This paper provides an overview of these transformations and their impacts.     

Long Range Transport of Asian Dust from Dust Storms and its Impact on Japan

We simulated the long range transport of dust emitted from dust storms that occurred in China by using a global three-dimensional chemical transport model. A modified dust emission flux scheme and a nonlocal diffusion scheme for determining the atmospheric eddy diffusivity in the atmospheric boundary layer were implemented to improve the chemical transport model. We examined the dust transport by comparing the model results with TOMS satellite images. The model calculated monthly total deposition of dust masses were used for comparison with the measurements collected at sampling stations in Japan, and good agreement was found. The model generally reproduced the temporal and spatial variations of dust reasonably well.     

Re‐evaluation of treatment approach for a site contaminated with Freon‐113 and 1,1,1‐trichloroethane

This study demonstrates a remedial approach for completing the remediation of an aquifer contaminated with 1,1,2‐trichlorotrifluoroethane (Freon‐113) and 1,1,1‐trichloroethane (TCA). In 1987, approximately 13,000 pounds of Freon‐113 were spilled from a tank at an industrial facility located in the state of New York. The groundwater remediation program consisted of an extraction system coupled with airstripping followed by natural attenuation of residual contaminants. In the first phase, five recovery wells and an airstripping tower were operational from April 1993 to August 1999. During this time period over 10,000 pounds of CFC‐13 and 200 pounds of TCA were removed from the groundwater and the contaminant concentrations decreased by several orders of magnitude. However, the efficiency of the remediation system to recover residual Freon and/or TCA reduced significantly. This was evidenced by: (1) low levels (< 10 ppb) of Freon and TCA captured in the extraction wells and (2) a slight increase of Freon and/or TCA in off‐site monitoring wells. A detailed study was conducted to evaluate the alternative for the second‐phase remediation. Results of a two‐year groundwater monitoring program indicated the contaminant plume to be stable with no significant increase or decrease in contaminant concentrations. Monitored geochemical parameters suggest that biodegradation does not influence the fate and transport of these contaminants, but other mechanisms of natural attenuation (primarily sorption and dilution) appear to control the fate and transport of these contaminants. The contaminants appear to be bound to the soil matrix (silty and clay units) with limited desorption as indicated by the solid phase analyses of contaminant concentrations. Results of fate and transport modeling indicated that contaminant concentrations would not exceed the action levels in the wells that showed a slight increase in contaminant concentrations and in the downgradient wells (sentinel) during the modeled timeframe of 30 years. This feasibility study for natural attenuation led to the termination of the extraction system and a transaction of the property, resulting in a significant financial benefit for the original site owner. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Formation of hydroxydibenzofurans from chlorophenols adsorbed on Fe-ion exchanged montmorillonite

Chlorophenols were adsorbed from gas phase on allophane, Na- and Fe(III)-ion exchanged montmorillonites at room temperature and the reaction on clay surfaces was followed by GC-MS analysis of extracts of the adsorbates. Besides chlorinated biphenyldiols and hydroxydiphenyl ethers, chlorinated hydroxydibenzofurans were formed on Fe(III)-montmorillonite.     

Daytime surface swarms of the euphausiid Thysanoessa inermis off the west coast of Hokkaido,northern Japan

Biological characteristics of the daytime swarming of the euphausiid Thysanoessa inermis (Krøyer) were examined off the west coast of Hokkaido in the northeast Sea of Japan between 1982 and 1987. Swarms were composed exclusively of fully mature individuals; males possessed spermatophores at the ejaculatory ducts and females had attached spermatophores at the thelycum. Females predominated in most swarms, while males or nearly balanced swarms were infrequently encountered. Fully mature females occurred in the late swarming season, usually mid-April. Examination of stomachs indicated that feeding activity was low during the daytime surface swarming behavior. The body sizes of swarming T. inermis occurring around Yagishiri Island were significantly larger than those found simultaneously off the Shakotan Peninsula. This suggests that the euphausiid populations of the two areas are different.     

Development and analysis of design for environment oriented design parameters

Knowledge of customer requirements (CRs) allows manufacturers to effectively reduce the time-to-market for products and maintain a high-level of quality through customer satisfaction. Acquisition, definition, and decomposition of such requirements is therefore a first step in the product design process and key for successful product development. Of building importance in these requirements is for sustainable or green products. Thus has developed the method of Design for Environment (DFE) in product design process, which calls designers to not only understand CRs for product function, structure and economic attributes, but in social and environmental impacts. Thus, the need for elicit environmental customer requirements (ECRs) from various traditional CRs becomes apparent along with the need to meet those requirements in the design process.In the present paper, initial CRs are decomposed and categorized into functional customer requirements (FCRs), performance customer requirements (PCRs) and ECRs. Such an analysis is made based on the analysis of environmentally friendly products (EFPs), environmentally conscious customers, and the characteristics of their CRs, Furthermore, the decomposing method based on semantic analysis is given along with a developed quality function deployment for environment (QFDE) method. These methods create a shift from initial CRs to DFE oriented technical parameters (TPs). Finally, the acquisition and conversion of CRs of the automatic soybean milk maker in the DFE process is taken as an example to validate and analyze the above-mentioned method.