The hydroxyl radical (OH) removes most atmospheric pollutants from air. The loss frequency of OH radicals due to the combined effect of all gas-phase OH reactive species is a measureable quantity termed total OH reactivity. Here we present total OH reactivity observations in pristine Amazon rainforest air, as a function of season, time-of-day and height (0-80 m). Total OH reactivity is low duri...

Compounds characterized by a slow degradation rate in the environment, i.e. resistant to biodegradation, and photolysis processes, are classified as persistent and have often been considered as potential environmental problems. A more exacting approach recognizes that a compound released to the environment has a tendency to accumulate in one medium more than in others. Hence, partitioning, tran...

Bioelectrochemical system (BES) for recalcitrant p-nitrophenol (PNP) removal was investigated in this study. Effective removal of PNP at rates up to 9.14 ± 0.48 mol m(-3)d(-1) was achieved at an energy consumption as low as 0.010 ± 0.002 kWh mol(-1) PNP. PNP removal rate was enhanced with negative cathode potential, increased influent PNP concentration and shortened hydraulic retention time (HR...

Use and misuse of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and petrochemicals by man is causing havoc with nature, as they persist as such or as their toxic metabolites. These pollutants bioaccumulate in environment, and they ultimately reach man through various means. They are hazardous because of potential toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, and genotoxicity. To rejuvenate nature, remediation method...

The mapping of air quality over the city of Strasbourg and its vicinity requires an increase of the number of measurements aiming at spatializing information about air pollutants concentrations. A methodology based on a multisource approach for mapping air pollutants concentrations over the city was presented in previous communications. One step of the methodology is the estimation of pollutant...

This chapter summarizes the current knowledge on the occurrence of common pollutants and pharmaceuticals in hospital effluents. These common pollutants include a myriad of biological, inorganic and organic pollutants. Daily and weekly concentration variability is presented for many of the covered pollutants. Particular attention is given to heavy metals (gadolinium and platinum) and pharmaceuti...

Epidemiological studies have revealed an association between pollution and allergic respiratory diseases. The main pollutants in this sense are nitric oxide, ozone, and particulate matter. The present review on one hand addresses the chemical characteristics of each of these three groups of pollutants and their main sources, and on the other examines their effects upon allergic respiratory dise...

The design and implementation of environmental policy often involves more than one pollutant, and must consider pollution as a byproduct of the production of marketable output. In this paper, we test the implicit assumption in the empirical literature that (1) production of marketable output, pollution, and abatement are separable, and (2) different pollutants can be abated separately. Using un...

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments prompted an increased urgency to find new ways to treat airstreams containing volatile organic compounds, which affect the nitrogen photolytic cycle and help produce ground-level ozone, hazardous air pollutants, and odorous air emissions such as hydrogen sulfide. Scientists at the New Jersey company Envirogen have adapted traditional biofiltration technology to...

After pollutants from an incineration facility disperse into the air, some people close to the facility may be exposed directly through inhalation or indirectly through consumption of food or water contaminated by deposition of the pollutants from air to soil, vegetation, and water. For metals and other pollutants that are very persistent in the environment, the potential effects may extend wel...