Pollutants are increasing day by day in the environment due to human interference. Thus, it has become necessary to find solutions to clean up these hazardous pollutants to improve human, animal, and plant health. Microbial Biotechnology in Environmental Monitoring and Cleanup is a critical scholarly resource that examines the toxic hazardous substances and their impact on the environment. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as pollution of microorganisms, phytoremediation, and bioremediation, this book is geared towards academics, professionals, graduate students, and practitioners interested in emerging techniques for environmental decontamination.
Hazardous waste in the environment is one of the most difficult challenges facing our society. The purpose of this book is to provide a background of the many aspects of hazardous waste, from its sources to its consequences, focusing on the risks posed to human health and the environment. It explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste; however, the scope of the book is much broader, discussing agents that are released into the environment that might not be classified as hazardous waste under the regulatory system, but nonetheless pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. It provides a background of some of the major generators of hazardous wastes, explains the pathways by which humans and wildlife are exposed, and includes discussion of the adverse health effects linked to these pollutants. It provides numerous case studies of hazardous waste mismanagement that have led to disastrous consequences, and highlights the deficiencies in science and regulation that have allowed the public to be subjected to myriad potentially hazardous agents. Finally, it provides a discussion of measures that will need to be taken to control society's hazardous waste problem. This book was designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, including students, professionals, and general readers interested in the topic. - Provides information about sources of and health risks posed by hazardous waste - Explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste - Includes numerous case studies of mismanagement, highlights deficiencies in science and regulation and discusses measures to tackle society's hazardous waste problems
The amount of hazardous waste in the United States has been estimated at 275 million metric tons in licensed sites alone. Is the health of Americans at risk from exposure to this toxic material? This volume, the first of several on environmental epidemiology, reviews the available evidence and makes recommendations for filling gaps in data and improving health assessments. The book explores: Whether researchers can infer health hazards from available data. The results of substantial state and federal programs on hazardous waste dangers. The book presents the results of studies of hazardous wastes in the air, water, soil, and food and examines the potential of biological markers in health risk assessment. The data and recommendations in this volume will be of immediate use to toxicologists, environmental health professionals, epidemiologists, and other biologists.
Hazardous Waste Management: An Overview of Advanced and Cost-Effective Solutions includes the latest practical knowledge and theoretical concepts for the treatment of hazardous wastes. The book covers five major themes, namely, ecological impact, waste management hierarchy, hazardous waste characteristics and regulations, hazardous wastes management, and future scope of hazardous waste management. It serves as a comprehensive and advanced reference for undergraduate students, researchers and practitioners in the field of hazardous wastes and focuses on the latest emerging research in the management of hazardous waste, the direction in which this branch is developing as well as future prospects. The book deals with all these components in-depth, however, particular attention is given to management techniques and cost-effective, economically feasible solutions for hazardous wastes released from various sources. - Comprehensively explores the impact of hazardous wastes on human health and ecosystems - Discusses toxicity across solid waste, aquatic food chain and airborne diseases - Categorically elaborates waste treatment and management procedures with current challenges - Discusses future challenges and the importance of renewing technologies
Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.
Rapid industrialization is a serious concern in the context of a healthy environment. With the growth in the number of industries, the waste generated is also growing exponentially. The various chemical processes operating in the manufacturing industry generate a large number of by-products, which are largely harmful and toxic pollutants and are generally discharged into the natural water bodies. Once the pollutants enter the environment, they are taken up by different life forms, and because of bio-magnification, they affect the entire food chain and have severe adverse effects on all life forms, including on human health. Although, various physico-chemical and biological approaches are available for the removal of toxic pollutants, unfortunately these are often ineffective and traditional clean up practices are inefficient. Biological approaches utilizing microorganisms (bacterial/fungi/algae), green plants or their enzymes to degrade or detoxify environmental pollutants such as endocrine disruptors, toxic metals, pesticides, dyes, petroleum hydrocarbons and phenolic compounds, offer eco- friendly approaches. Such eco-friendly approaches are often more effective than traditional practices, and are safe for both industry workers as well as environment. This book provides a comprehensive overview of various toxic environmental pollutants from a variety natural and anthropogenic sources, their toxicological effects on the environment, humans, animals and plants as well as their biodegradation and bioremediation using emerging and eco-friendly approaches (e.g. Anammox technology, advanced oxidation processes, membrane bioreactors, membrane processes, GMOs), microbial degradation (e.g. bacteria, fungi, algae), phytoremediation, biotechnology and nanobiotechnology. Offering fundamental and advanced information on environmental problems, challenges and bioremediation approaches used for the remediation of contaminated sites, it is a valuable resource for students, scientists and researchers engaged in microbiology, biotechnology and environmental sciences.
Electronic waste contains toxic and carcinogenic compounds, which can pose a risk to the environment. This title discusses the directive and examines legislation in the USA and other parts of the world, considering the opportunities and threats posed by this form of waste.
Hazardous Waste Management and Health Risks presents a systematic overview of evaluating solid and hazardous waste management practices. The book introduces readers to the basic principles of hazardous waste management and progresses into related topics that allow managers to assess environmental quality. These topics include heavy metal pollution, reproductive biomarkers as signals of environmental pressure and health risks, and environmental contamination in an international perspective. With an emphasis on sustainable development throughout the text, a zero-waste strategy as an alternative way to manage hazardous waste is suggested in a dedicated chapter. This reference book is intended as an introductory guide for managers taking waste management training courses and students involved in degree courses related to environmental engineering and management.
This third edition updates and expands the material presented in the best-selling first and second editions of Basic Hazardous Waste Management. It covers health and safety issues affecting hazardous waste workers, management and regulation of radioactive and biomedical/infectious wastes, as well as current trends in technologies. While the topics
Rapid trend of industry and high technological progress are the main sources of the accumulation of hazardous wastes. Recently, nuclear applications have been rapidly developed, and several nuclear power plants have been started to work throughout the world. The potential impact of released hazardous contaminants into the environment has received growing attention due to its serious problems to the biological systems. The book Management of Hazardous Wastes contains eight chapters covering two main topics of hazardous waste management and microbial bioremediation. This book will be useful to many scientists, researchers, and students in the scope of development in waste management program including sources of hazardous waste, government policies on waste generation, and treatment with particular emphasis on bioremediation technology.
