Lecture 1 1 ss-3

Editor's Notes

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• #6: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was founded on December 2nd, 1970. From that time to the present, America's environmental history has stood witness to both dramatic events and remarkable progress. In 1969, just before the agency was established, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio became so polluted that it caught fire “ a situation that provided impetus for Congress to pass the federal Clean Water Act. By 2009, concern about climate change and sea-level rise led EPA to make the first official finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health and our environment. Through this interactive timeline, you can explore more than 40 years of environmental milestones. Current Administrator is Lisa Jackson\n
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• #8: The recorded roots of formal scientific research lie in the collective work of a number of individuals in ancient Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and European cultures, rather than from a single person or event.\n
• #9: The recorded roots of formal scientific research lie in the collective work of a number of individuals in ancient Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and European cultures, rather than from a single person or event.\n
• #10: The recorded roots of formal scientific research lie in the collective work of a number of individuals in ancient Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and European cultures, rather than from a single person or event.\n
• #11: The recorded roots of formal scientific research lie in the collective work of a number of individuals in ancient Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and European cultures, rather than from a single person or event.\n
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• #17: The cloud, a poisonous mix of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and metal dust, came from the smokestacks of the local zinc smelter where most of the town worked. The industries were coal-mining, steel-making, wire-making. Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant were frequent occurrences in Donora.\nThe smog first rolled into Donora on October 27, 1948. By the following day it was causing coughing and other signs of respiratory distress for many residents of the community in the Monongahela River valley. Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma. The smog continued until it rained on October 31, by which time 20 residents of Donora had died and approximately a third to one half of the town's population of 14,000 residents had been sickened.\nThe Donora tragedy shocked the nation and marked a turning point in our complacency about industrial pollution and its effect on our health. Donora made the survival of area residents, not to mention the economic revival of the Pittsburgh area, an imperative.\nOrdinances limiting smoke in the city were twice enacted at the turn of the century, but were later invalidated by the courts. Street lights were lit during the day to cut through the smoke until after World War II, when true enforcement of a 1941 smoke control ordinance began.\nIn 1945, anticipating the health problems from filthy air, newly elected Pittsburgh Mayor David Lawrence and financier Richard King Mellon, head of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, pledged cleaner air as part of the "Renaissance" they envisioned for the city. A decade later, coal burning for home heating was outlawed and clean natural gas was piped to all homes. Industry began screening its emissions. And diesel engines replaced coal-fired locomotives and river boats by 1952.\nAs a result of civic action, Americans could now see, smell and, in fact, taste the improvements in their air. They would not settle for less. And in 1963, Congress passed the first federal Clean Air Act, then amended it in 1970 to give it teeth. States were now required to come up with plans for reducing pollution to meet federal clean air standards.\nSince the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, we have removed 98 percent of lead from the air, 79 percent of soot, 41 percent of sulfur dioxide, 28 percent of carbon monoxide, and 25 percent of the smog soup now called ozone.\nLawsuits were filed against U.S. Steel, which never acknowledged responsibility for the incident, calling it "an act of God".[1] While the steel company did not accept blame, it reached a settlement in 1951 in which it paid about $235,000, which was stretched over the 80 victims who had participated in the lawsuit, leaving them little after legal expenses were factored in. Representatives of American Steel and Wire settled the more than $4.6 million claimed in 130 damage suits at about 5% of what had been sought, noting that the company was prepared to show at trial that the smog had been caused by a "freak weather condition" that trapped over Donora "all of the smog coming from the homes, railroads, the steamboats, and the exhaust from automobiles, as well as the effluents from its plants."[4][2] U.S. Steel closed both plants by 1966.\n
• #18: 2.5 microns dust particle size\n
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• #22: Benzene is a chemical with many uses. Because of its sweet smell, it was used as an aftershave in the 19th century. Before the 1920s, it was used regularly as an industrial solvent. This was before people became aware of the dangers of its toxicity. It was once widely used as an additive to gasoline, but this practice was also abandoned due to health concerns. \nBenzene is mostly commonly used as an additive to other chemicals. It is used to make styrene, which is used to make plastics and polymers, and in the manufacturing process of nylon. Small amounts of benzene are used in the manufacturing processes of drugs, detergents, pesticides and explosives.\nExposure to benzene can have very serious health effects. High levels of exposure can cause breathing disorders, dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and nausea. If one were to eat food or drink liquid containing benzene, a rapid heart rate, vomiting and stomach irritation may result. Very high levels of exposure to benzene can ultimately lead to death.\nThere are tests that can be performed to show whether a person has been exposed to the chemical. Benzene can be measured by a breath or blood test. Both these tests must be performed shortly after exposure, as the chemical disappears very quickly from the body. In the United States, the maximum amount of benzene permissible in water is 0.005 milligrams per liter.\n
• #23: Benzene is a chemical with many uses. Because of its sweet smell, it was used as an aftershave in the 19th century. Before the 1920s, it was used regularly as an industrial solvent. This was before people became aware of the dangers of its toxicity. It was once widely used as an additive to gasoline, but this practice was also abandoned due to health concerns. \nBenzene is mostly commonly used as an additive to other chemicals. It is used to make styrene, which is used to make plastics and polymers, and in the manufacturing process of nylon. Small amounts of benzene are used in the manufacturing processes of drugs, detergents, pesticides and explosives.\nExposure to benzene can have very serious health effects. High levels of exposure can cause breathing disorders, dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and nausea. If one were to eat food or drink liquid containing benzene, a rapid heart rate, vomiting and stomach irritation may result. Very high levels of exposure to benzene can ultimately lead to death.\nThere are tests that can be performed to show whether a person has been exposed to the chemical. Benzene can be measured by a breath or blood test. Both these tests must be performed shortly after exposure, as the chemical disappears very quickly from the body. In the United States, the maximum amount of benzene permissible in water is 0.005 milligrams per liter.\n
• #24: Benzene is a chemical with many uses. Because of its sweet smell, it was used as an aftershave in the 19th century. Before the 1920s, it was used regularly as an industrial solvent. This was before people became aware of the dangers of its toxicity. It was once widely used as an additive to gasoline, but this practice was also abandoned due to health concerns. \nBenzene is mostly commonly used as an additive to other chemicals. It is used to make styrene, which is used to make plastics and polymers, and in the manufacturing process of nylon. Small amounts of benzene are used in the manufacturing processes of drugs, detergents, pesticides and explosives.\nExposure to benzene can have very serious health effects. High levels of exposure can cause breathing disorders, dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and nausea. If one were to eat food or drink liquid containing benzene, a rapid heart rate, vomiting and stomach irritation may result. Very high levels of exposure to benzene can ultimately lead to death.\nThere are tests that can be performed to show whether a person has been exposed to the chemical. Benzene can be measured by a breath or blood test. Both these tests must be performed shortly after exposure, as the chemical disappears very quickly from the body. In the United States, the maximum amount of benzene permissible in water is 0.005 milligrams per liter.\n
• #25: Benzene is a chemical with many uses. Because of its sweet smell, it was used as an aftershave in the 19th century. Before the 1920s, it was used regularly as an industrial solvent. This was before people became aware of the dangers of its toxicity. It was once widely used as an additive to gasoline, but this practice was also abandoned due to health concerns. \nBenzene is mostly commonly used as an additive to other chemicals. It is used to make styrene, which is used to make plastics and polymers, and in the manufacturing process of nylon. Small amounts of benzene are used in the manufacturing processes of drugs, detergents, pesticides and explosives.\nExposure to benzene can have very serious health effects. High levels of exposure can cause breathing disorders, dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and nausea. If one were to eat food or drink liquid containing benzene, a rapid heart rate, vomiting and stomach irritation may result. Very high levels of exposure to benzene can ultimately lead to death.\nThere are tests that can be performed to show whether a person has been exposed to the chemical. Benzene can be measured by a breath or blood test. Both these tests must be performed shortly after exposure, as the chemical disappears very quickly from the body. In the United States, the maximum amount of benzene permissible in water is 0.005 milligrams per liter.\n
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• #29: Benzene is a chemical hazard but there are others.\n
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• #33: \nBinding: usually to proteins\nPartitioning - dividing into pieces\nConjugation - joining of material\n
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