The Validation of a Passive Sampler for Indoor and Outdoor Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds

Abstract

Volatile organlcs compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous in the air we breathe. The use of passive samplers to measure these concentrations can be an effective technique. When exposed for long durations, a passive sampler may be a good tool for investigating chronic exposures to chemicals in the environment. A passive sampler that was designed for occupational exposures can be used as such a tool. Laboratory validation under as many conditions as possible needs to be accomplished so as to characterize the sampler with known parameters. This paper describes the methods and results of an investigation into the validity of using a passive monitor to sample VOCs for a three-week period. Two concentration levels, two relative humidities, and five VOCs were studied. Results indicate that the samplers work best under conditions of high concentration with low relative humidity and low concentration with high relative humidity. For the passive sampler, excluding chloroform, percent deviations from the predicted values varied between ?41 and +22 percent; while the values between the passive and the active samplers varied between ?27 and +24 percent. Benzene, heptane, and perchloroethylene were sampled with equal precision and accuracy.     

Net Waste Reduction Analysis Applied to Air Pollution Control Technologies

Post-combustion air pollution control technologies were evaluated to determine total waste produced by the operation of these systems. A continuum of air pollution control technology choices providing increasing levels of control is presented and the quantity of waste produced by each air pollution control option has been calculated. In addition, this analysis accounts for waste produced indirectly by the generation of energy required for operation of the control technologies. This type of analysis can be used to select optimal control levels and to demonstrate why a goal of zero air emissions may not be environmentally desirable.     

A national system for disseminating information on victims during mass casualty incidents

Immediate provision of information to the public is vital during mass casualty incidents (MCIs). Failure to implement rapidly a communication response system may result in the public overwhelming hospitals. This paper shares Israel's experience in developing and maintaining a national system for supplying information on the location and identification of casualties. ADAM interfaces online with hospitals' patient registration systems, and allows for immediate electronic transfer of designated data. The system permits information centres to access information on which hospital has admitted identified and unidentified casualties. The latter are photographed at the entrance to the hospital and the picture is stored in ADAM. The system enables hospitals and municipalities to ensure immediate availability and accessibility of information and thus (in our belief) mitigate the concerns of family and friends. Use of such an interface system is recommended as an integral element of emergency preparedness.     

Effects of land use on soil respiration: conversion of oak woodlands to vineyards

We examined constraints on soil CO2 respiration in natural oak woodlands, and adjacent vineyards that were converted approximately 30 yr ago from oak woodlands, in the Oakville Region of Napa Valley, California. All sites were located on the same soil type, a Bale (variant) gravelly loam (fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Cumulic Ultic Haploxeroll) and dominated by C3 vegetation. Seasonal soil CO2 efflux was greatest at the oak woodland sites, although during the summer drought the rates of soil CO2 efflux measured from oak sites were generally similar to those measured from the vineyards. Soil profile CO2 concentrations at the oak woodland sites were lower below 15 cm despite higher CO2 efflux rates. Soil gas diffusion coefficients for oak sites were larger than for vineyard sites, and this indicated that the apparent discrepancy in soil profile carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) may be caused by a diffusion limitation. Soil profile [CO2] and delta13C values showed substantial temporal changes over the course of a year. Vineyard soil CO2 was more depleted in 13CO2 below 25 cm in the soil profile during the active growing season as indicated by more negative delta13C ratios. This result indicated that different C sources were being oxidized in vineyard soils. Annual C losses were less from vineyard soils (7.02 +/- 0.58 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1)) as compared to oak soils (15.67 +/- 1.44 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1)), and both were comparable to losses reported in previous investigations.     

Molecular and morphometric variation in European populations of the articulate brachiopod Terebratulina retusa

Molecular and morphometric variation within and between population samples of the articulate brachiopod Terebratulina spp., collected in 1985–1987 from a Norwegian fjord, sea-lochs and coastal sites in western Scotland, the southern English Channel (Brittany) and the western Mediterranean, were measured by the analysis of variation in the lengths of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) fragments produced by digestion with nine restriction endonucleases and by multivariate statistical analysis of six selected morphometric parameters. Nucleotide difference within each population sample was high. Nucleotide difference between population samples from the Scottish sites, both those that are tidally contiguous and those that appear to be geographically isolated, were not significantly different from zero. Nucleotide differences between the population samples from Norway, Brittany, Scotland and the western Mediterranean were also very low. Morphometric analysis confirmed the absence of substantial differentiation.     

Some considerations in the aftermath of the WWFs anniversary celebrations in Assisi

Summary The author considers various moral, social and political issues that have become apparent from the aftermath of the WWF's twenty-fifth Anniversary Celebrations in Assisi, Italy. In particular, the difficulty of making people understand the very ethics of conservation, when their cultural history has shaped their minds quite differently, is highlighted, and this is reflected in the author's suggested subtitle for the paper, How to Love Nature Without Getting your Shoes Wet.But don't ever leave me alone with Nature, For I know too much about her not to be afraid (Alfred de Vigny)Maria Luisa Cohen is President of the Assisi Nature Council (See also,The Environmentalist, 5 (3) 227–229).     

PROJECTED INCREASES IN MUNICIPAL WATER USE IN THE GREAT LAKES DUE TO CO2-INDUCED CLIMATIC CHANGE1

ABSTRACT: Two scenarios of CO₂-induced climatic change are used to estimate changes in water use for a number of municipalities in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. Both scenarios, based on General Circulation Models produced by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab (GFDL), project warmer temperatures for the region. Using regression models based on monthly potential evapotranspiration for individual cities, it is projected that annual per capita water use will increase by a small amount, which will probably have only a marginal effect on water supplies in the Great Lakes basin. This method could also be used to assess the potential impacts of CO₂-induced climatic change on water use by the agriculture and power sectors, as well as the effectiveness of water policy initiatives, such as price changes. More work is needed to project water use during peak periods (warm dry spells), which may occur more frequently in a 2 × CO₂ climate in this region.