A Specialty Conference Summary

The Lake Michigan States Section hosted an International Specialty Conference in Chicago during March 22-24, 1983. Jointly sponsored by APCA's TP-6, TP-7, TP-9 and TT-5 Technical Committees, the technical program consisted of 49 presentations over 10 separate technical sessions. Covering a diverse range of air toxicant measurement issues, and superbly supported by the excellent instrumentation exhibit, the conference was enthusiastically received by nearly 200 attendees. General Chairmen of the conference were Frank Werderitsch, Material Service Corporation, Lyons, Illinois, and Jay Norco, ETA Engineering, Inc., Westmont Illinois.

This overview contains a selection of the highlights from the technical presentations. Of particular interest were the invited presentations of key government and industry representatives who outlined their respective activities and approaches related to toxic air contaminants. A synopsis of those government and industry remarks are also contained herein.     

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment Its Implications for Air Pollution Prevention Associations

In today's world of misunderstanding, confusion, and conflict man is sadly in need of some force for pulling together and unifying his efforts for peace, progress, safety, and health upon his native Planet. During the latter days of the Conference, when delegates from large nations and small nations and rich nations and poor nations were working tirelessly to reach agreement on a Declaration on the Human Environment, and during the closing hours of the Conference when the Declaration was approved by unanimous vote, it appeared to many persons that the environment might well be such a unifying force for mankind. Throughout the early days of the Stockholm sessions, the conflict of ideologies and political Dr. Barthel is the Director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. He attended the Stockholm Conference as an accredited representative of the International Union of Air Pollution Associations. principles and severe disagreement on specific issues relating to the environment were all too apparent, but through pertinacity and splendid Conference leadership, differences were resolved and wide-scale agreements reached.     

A Summary of the APCA/EPA International Specialty Conference

Atmospheric change has emerged as a major global environmental issue of national and international concern in the 1990's. The dominance of the legislative and regulatory perception of atmospheric processes over their scientific understanding has left both regulators and atmospheric scientists ill-prepared to respond to emerging atmospheric-environmental issues. A view of clean air is presented whereby the legislative/regulatory and scientific perception of the physical and chemical processes of the atmosphere are linked to achieve the goal of a healthy atmosphere and sustainable environment.     

The Effects Of Ozone On Tobacco And Pinto Bean as Conditioned by Several Ecological Factors

The sensitivity of tobacco and/or pinto bean to ozone, as an air pollutant, is increased by growing plants in a shortened photoperiod under reduced light intensity and in a light potting mix. Sensitivity also is influenced by carbon dioxide concentration, time of day, and age of plant at time of exposure. Plants are more severely injured by a given dose under continuous exposure than when the exposure is split into two time periods. Tobacco shows cumulative development of injury when exposed to low concentrations intermittently over several days.     

A Summary of the A&WMA/EPA International Specialty Conference

“Visibility and Fine Particles“, the fourth in a series of international specialty conferences on atmospheric visibility, was sponsored by the Air and Waste Management Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The purpose of this conference was to provide a forum to disseminate the results of recent advances in visibility and fine particles. The 110 papers presented at the conference covered six topics: policy and regulatory issues, visibility and fine particle measurements, human perception of visibility, meteorological factors affecting visibility, economic valuation of visibility, and visibility and fine particle modeling and source apportionment. Eighty-five of those papers are included in the conference Transactions and are summarized in this article.     

The Operational Forecasting Of Undesirable Pollution Levels Based On A Combined Pollution Index

Several air pollution indexes have been developed for control action and public information. The majority of these are based upon some combination of SO₂ and particulate matter levels, since epidemiological studies indicate a relationship between severity of health effects and these constituents. The present paper describes the application of one such index, in conjunction with synoptic meteorological forecasting, to an operational program for forecasting pollution potential in the Sarnia, Ontario, petrochemical complex. The program was developed in conjunction with the Lambton Industrial Society. This system has operated for over 5 years with approximately a 70% accuracy of predicting adverse situations. The performance of this program indicates that meteorological forecasts can be used successfully to provide major sources with the advance information necessary to effect any additional control measures relevant to their individual operations.     

Regional Photochemical Measurement and Modeling Studies: A Summary of the Air & Waste Management Association International Specialty Conference

Abstract

This paper summarizes the Air & Waste Management Association’s International Specialty Conference, "Regional Photochemical Measurement and Modeling Studies," held in San Diego, California, on November 8-12,1993. The purpose of the conference was to facilitate exchange of information and to initiate better communication and interaction among scientists, air quality managers, regulators, and others involved in or applying tools (models and measurements to support the modeling efforts) that can be used to develop equitable and effective emissions management practices for attainment of ozone standards. Attendees heard more than 350 presentations from authors representing nearly 30 air quality and meteorological measurement and modeling studies from 18 countries. While the primary emphasis of the conference was technical, two policy sessions were included (Plenary and Concluding Sessions) to place the technical results in perspective with the policy issues. The technical agenda was divided into three subjects: Analysis of Field Measurements (results and interpretation), Modeling (status and results), and Other Topics. Papers presented at the conference are being published in a variety of journals or books to meet the needs of the scientific and policy communities. A complete bibliographical listing of the papers presented at the conference is included with this paper.

An unexpected outcome of the conference has been the development of an initiative for continuing the intercomparison of goals and scientific findings from regional air quality studies in Europe and North America, entitled “Regional Oxidants Programs Intercomparison” (ROxPIn). This paper will also discuss the goals and objectives of ROxPIn.     

Migration,Transformation and Removal of Macrolide Antibiotics in The Environment: A Review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Macrolide antibiotics (MAs), as a typical emerging pollutant, are widely detected in environmental media. When entering the environment, MAs can...     

The Sensitivity of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results to Alternative Model Structures: A Case Study of Municipal Waste Incineration

Abstract

In this analysis, human health risk due to exposure to municipal waste incinerator emissions is assessed as an example of the application of probabilistic techniques (e.g., Monte Carlo or Latin Hypercube simulations). Incinerator risk assessments are characterized by the dominance of indirect exposure, thus this analysis focuses on exposure via the ingestion of locally grown foods. In addition, since exposure to 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD drives most incinerator risk assessments, this compound is the subject of the illustrative calculations. An important part of probabilistic risk assessment is determining the relative influence of the input parameters on the magnitude of the variance in the output distribution. This constitutes an important step toward prioritizing data needs for additional research. However, under various possible model forms reflecting incompletely understood aspects of contaminant transport, differences may be observed in estimates of risk, variance in risk, and the relative contributions of individual uncertain and variable inputs to the variance. In this analysis, a sequential structural decomposition of the relationships between the input variables is used to partition the variance in the output (i.e., risk) to identify the most influential contributors to overall variance among them. For comparison, the partitioning of variance is repeated, using techniques of multivariate regression. In summary, this study considers the degree to which results of a probabilistic assessment are contingent on critical model assumptions about the representation of deposition velocity. Specifically, this analysis assesses the impact on the results of uncertainty about the best model of the vapor/particle partitioning behavior of semi-volatile airborne pollutants.     

The Influence of Annual Meteorological Variations On Regional Air Pollution Modeling: A Case Study of Allegheny County,Pennsylvania

The influence of year-to-year meteorological variations on the prediction of annual average ground-level pollutant concentrations has been examined via case studies of Allegheny County, Pa. Twenty-two stability wind roses representing different averaging intervals of from one to seven years were employed in the Air Quality Display Model to predict annual average SO₂ concentrations in two multiple source sub-basins, and from two single point sources representing industrial and utility boiler stacks. Effects of annual meteorological variations were manifested by changes in the magnitude of peak concentrations, the location of peak concentrations, and the geographic distribution of pollutants. For fixed rates of emission, the peak annual average SO₂ ground-level concentration varied by an average of up to 33% of highest values for point sources and 17% for sub-basin complexes. In both cases, there was relatively little change in the location of peak concentration, though occasional directional shifts were noted. In contrast, marked variations were noted in the geographic area exposed to annual average concentrations in excess of several selected values. To aid in regional planning, several methods were formulated which considerably reduced the uncertainty in predicting peak annual concentration for varying degrees of historical data on regional stability wind rose. These methods are-especially applicable to analysis of control strategies directed at attaining annual ambient air quality standards which nominally must never be exceeded.