Summary

Encyclopedia of Pollution is a two-volume color set designed to address all aspects of pollution and the global impact on the environment in a single source. Containing more than 300 entries and essays interspersed throughout, it uses the most current scientific data to explain the different types of pollutants including properties, production, uses, environmental release and fate, adverse health response to exposure, and environmental regulations on human exposure. It provides the scientific background on the water, soil, and air of environments where the pollutants are released. Coverage also includes pollution regulation, the function of federal regulatory agencies and environmental advocacy groups, and the technology and methods to reduce pollution and to remediate existing pollution problems. 

Numerous case studies explore the most infamous of pollution events such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Gulf Storm oil well fires, the Chernobyl disaster, Hurricane Katrina, the World Trade Center disaster, and the Love Canal in New York, among many others—including those that had great impact on legislation or that were used in popular media such as the films Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action. Biographies are provided of some of the leaders and pioneers of pollution study and activism. Other useful features include a detailed glossary, indexes, a timeline, and tables.

Specifications

Full-color photographs and line illustrations. Appendixes. Further resources. Cross-references. In two volumes.

About the Author(s)

Alexander E. Gates, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is currently a professor and the chairman of Earth and environmental sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. He is also the executive director of the Highlands Environmental Research Institute and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He has served as president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NE Section) and the Geological Association of New Jersey. He is an expert in many environmental aspects of geosciences, including environmental radon, earthquake activity, acid mine drainage, and soil pollution. He has appeared as an expert in several Discovery Channel documentaries, among others, on topics in geology and commonly appears in newspapers and on television news programs to explain the impact of earthquakes, pollution, and other environmental incidents on the public. 

Robert P. Blauvelt is a senior vice president at an environmental consulting firm in northern New Jersey and has worked in the environmental industry for more than 30 years. He has authored numerous articles on the cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination at hazardous and low-level radioactive waste disposal sites.