Comparison of elemental carbon in lake sediments measured by three different methods and 150-year pollution history in Eastern China.

Concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) were measured in a 150 yr sediment record collected from Lake Chaohu in Anhui Province, eastern China, using three different thermal analytical methods: IMPROVE_A thermal optical reflectance (TOR), STN_thermal optical transmittance (TOT), and chemothermal oxidation (CTO). Distribution patterns for EC concentrations are different among the three methods, most likely due to the operational definition of EC and different temperature treatments prescribed for each method. However, similar profiles were found for high-temperature EC fractions among different methods. Historical soot(TOR) (high-temperature EC fractions measured by the IMPROVE_A TOR method) from Lake Chaohu exhibited stable low concentrations prior to the late 1970s and a sharp increase thereafter, corresponding well with the rapid industrialization of China in the last three decades. This may suggest that high-temperature thermal protocols are suitable for differentiating between soot and other carbon fractions. A similar soot(TOR) record was also obtained from Lake Taihu (~200 km away), suggesting a regional source of soot. The ratio of char(TOR) (low-temperature EC fraction measured by the IMPROVE_A TOR method, after correction for pyrolysis) to soot(TOR) in Lake Chaohu shows an overall decreasing trend, consistent with gradual changes in fuel use from wood burning to increasing fossil fuel combustions. Average higher char(TOR)/soot(TOR) was observed in Lake Taihu than in Lake Chaohu in the past 150 years, consistent with the longer and more extensive industrialization around the Taihu region.

[The Vienna School of Water Hygiene from the End of World War II until now]. / Die Wiener Schule der Wasser-Hygiene nach dem 2. Weltkrieg bis heute.

After the economic stagnation of the 1930s and World War II the water-hygiene had to revive. Besides basic research for large projects as the 3rd Viennese water-conduct, the Danube hydroelectric power station in Hainburg and the Marchfeldkanal new fields were opened. The evidence of fecal spring-water contamination by determination of the spectral-absorption-coefficients avoids the delay by bacterial cultivation and enables immediate satellite-transmission to central stations for turning-off the afflux. Determination of the origin (human and ruminant) of isolated E. coli by Real-time-PCR indicates necessities for sanitation. Investigation on UV-water-disinfection, considering also the formation of carcinogenic and genotoxic compounds, resulted in the only European national UV-norm and the establishment of one of the wordwide four testing institutions of UV-water-disinfection. The department for water-hygiene of the Medical University of Vienna carries out specific duties in various national committees of public health importance as well as in collaboration with EU, WHO, ISO and other international commissions.

The Kishon affair: science, law, and the politics of causation.

This article describes how science and law were called upon (and failed) to resolve a controversy that created a painful rift between the Israeli State and some of its elite soldiers. The controversy, which came to be known as "the Kishon affair," erupted in 2000, when veterans of an elite and secretive unit in the Israeli navy claimed that pollution in the Kishon River where they had trained and dived during their military service had been the cause of a rash of cancers. The veterans demanded that the Ministry of Defense take responsibility for their illnesses, finance their medical treatment, and support their families if they die. The military denied the causal connection between the polluted river and the veterans' cancers and rejected their demands. The dispute quickly escalated into a bitter public controversy, and a high-rank commission comprised of one of Israel's top jurists and two prominent scientists was called upon to study the disputed causal relation and reveal its true nature. However, after nearly three years of intense inquiry the jurist and the scientists reached opposing conclusions: the jurist found a causal connection while the scientists rejected it.

Historical alpha-HCH budget in the Arctic Ocean: the Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM).

An Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM) has been developed to calculate a sequential historical alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (alpha-HCH) budget in the Arctic Ocean from its introduction in the 1940s up to the present. The AMBBM is created in the context of the Arctic as a receptor, and has three major components: the air concentration module, the loading from Arctic river module and the transport/transformation module. The results of the model provide a more complete depiction of the behavior of alpha-HCH within the Arctic Ocean. Model output includes annual concentrations in Arctic air and water, annual alpha-HCH loading to, removal from the Arctic Ocean and annual cumulative burden of alpha-HCH in the Arctic waters from 1945 to 2000. Our model results compare well with published data in the 1980s and 1990s and show that the alpha-HCH burden in the Arctic Ocean started to accumulate in the early 1940s and reached the highest value of 6670 t in 1982, 1 year before China banned the use of technical HCH. Since then the burden of alpha-HCH in Arctic waters has decreased quickly by an average annual rate of approximately 270 ty(-1) during the 1990s, decreasing from 4220 t in 1990 to 1550 t in 2000. The complete elimination of alpha-HCH from Arctic waters would require another two decades. The total loading between 1945 and 2000 was 27700 t accounting for approximately 0.6% of total global alpha-HCH emission from agricultural land to the atmosphere. Differences in loadings of alpha-HCH to the North American Arctic Ocean and Eurasian Arctic Ocean are also discussed.

[The outer environment--now and then]. / Det ytre miljø--før og nå.

Hazardous environmental factors in Norway have changed considerably over the last decades, often for the better. During the last five-year period, water-works serving 800,000 Norwegians have been renovated. The earlier high levels of sulphur dioxide and lead in urban air are now very low, whereas suspended particulate matter and nitrogen oxides continue to be at levels which can induce adverse health effects. Radon and tobacco smoke are now important indoor contaminants. Moisture-induced damage in dwellings may lead to health problems; the extent of such damage is, however, not known. A number of fjords are still contaminated with metals, PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins, even though industrial discharge to water and air has been greatly reduced. Body burdens of DDT, PCB and dioxins have been markedly lowered over time. There is a continuous increase in the use of chemicals, though the chemicals are better tested and controlled than before. The total volume of pesticides used has fallen over the last three decades. There are no clear changes over the last 15 to 20 years in perceived noise exposure.

Do lendário Anhembi ao poluído Tietê / From lendary Anhembi to polluted Tietê

Tenta-se resgatar um pouco da história do rio Tietê e trazer à luz situaçöes criadas pela administraçäo pública e os diversos momentos políticos que atravessamos, maiormente neste século XX, e que induziram à rápida degradaçäo do rio. Fatos que por vezes marcaram os reais desígnios de uma concessionária de energia elétrica e ainda serviriam ao direcionamento de grande parcela da opiniäo pública menos esclarecida, entendendo que "todo o progresso e desenvolvimento do início do século e suporte ao desenvolvimento posterior da cidade de Säo Paulo foi devido às açöes da concessionária canadense, Light". Fatos que em determinado momento impediram e enviabilizaram alteraçöes nos primitivos planos e projetos de tratamento de esgotos da regiäo metropolitana de Säo Paulo, quando se pretendia implantar sistema menos oneroso ao erário público, mas que frontalmente contrariava os interesses näo só da concessionária referida como sobretudo das grandes empreiteiras de obras.