5
Introduction
brought about by Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring in 1962 (Carson, 1962).
Eventually, it led to the ban of DDT and other pesticides and the creation of
the U.S. EPA in 1970.
We all experience air in different ways—as a means to sustain and refresh
ourselves, to catch our breath, and to sense aromas and odors in our surroundings. Air is also the medium through which we see our surroundings.
We inhale and exhale on average a liter per minute which can expose us
to air’s contents. There is more to air besides oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon
dioxide. Think of fresh air compared to polluted air, containing odors from
perfumes, freshly baked bread, refneries, chemical complexes, auto exhaust,
skunks, and cattle feedlots. This bouquet of odors is due to a complex chemical mixture. New chemists in industry are told the odor from manufacturing
was the smell of money! Over time they realized it was pollution and potentially harmful.
Odor is not, however, the only indicator of chemicals in air. Think also
about insect pheromones that are emitted in femtogram quantities to attract
male moths to females and the spray from a crop duster that kills pests or the
lethal Great Smog events during early industrialization.
Air is also a transport and exposure route for actual and potential exposures to people, e.g., within the current pandemic of COVID-19, valley fever,
and other human diseases, and for exposures to wildlife: birds, bees, and
rare and endangered species globally. Air is a conduit for harmful chemicals
and diseases.
In this book, we focus on potentially harmful chemicals in air with an
emphasis on volatile and semivolatile pesticides, related contaminants both
synthetic and naturally occurring, as well as viruses and pathogens. These
issues will be discussed in relation to their physicochemical properties and
how that affects their environmental fate and distribution, and ways to sample and analyze them, as well as opportunities to use this information to
minimize risk. We will touch on computer-based modeling related to emissions and dispersion of pesticides and other contaminants in air. The ambient monitoring of air for residues will be briefy discussed, particularly in
relation to opportunities to improve data quality and their use in risk assessment (Brooks, 2012; Crosby, 1998).
The topic is of interest to politicians, regulators, and environmental scientists, including students, ecologists, and public health offcials dealing with
smoke from fres one day and airborne viruses the next. And it can have practical consequences in explaining tragic accidents, like the fatal crash of a TWA
airliner on Long Island, and deteriorating air quality in the valleys and air
basins of the West. It can answer concerns over wildlife—why hawks and
other valuable species become sick and die from exposures in orchards. And
why some species, amphibians and others, are disappearing from mountainous terrains, perhaps due to the presence of endocrine system disruptors that
are residues from synthetic chemicals.
Introduction
brought about by Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring in 1962 (Carson, 1962).
Eventually, it led to the ban of DDT and other pesticides and the creation of
the U.S. EPA in 1970.
We all experience air in different ways—as a means to sustain and refresh
ourselves, to catch our breath, and to sense aromas and odors in our surroundings. Air is also the medium through which we see our surroundings.
We inhale and exhale on average a liter per minute which can expose us
to air’s contents. There is more to air besides oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon
dioxide. Think of fresh air compared to polluted air, containing odors from
perfumes, freshly baked bread, refneries, chemical complexes, auto exhaust,
skunks, and cattle feedlots. This bouquet of odors is due to a complex chemical mixture. New chemists in industry are told the odor from manufacturing
was the smell of money! Over time they realized it was pollution and potentially harmful.
Odor is not, however, the only indicator of chemicals in air. Think also
about insect pheromones that are emitted in femtogram quantities to attract
male moths to females and the spray from a crop duster that kills pests or the
lethal Great Smog events during early industrialization.
Air is also a transport and exposure route for actual and potential exposures to people, e.g., within the current pandemic of COVID-19, valley fever,
and other human diseases, and for exposures to wildlife: birds, bees, and
rare and endangered species globally. Air is a conduit for harmful chemicals
and diseases.
In this book, we focus on potentially harmful chemicals in air with an
emphasis on volatile and semivolatile pesticides, related contaminants both
synthetic and naturally occurring, as well as viruses and pathogens. These
issues will be discussed in relation to their physicochemical properties and
how that affects their environmental fate and distribution, and ways to sample and analyze them, as well as opportunities to use this information to
minimize risk. We will touch on computer-based modeling related to emissions and dispersion of pesticides and other contaminants in air. The ambient monitoring of air for residues will be briefy discussed, particularly in
relation to opportunities to improve data quality and their use in risk assessment (Brooks, 2012; Crosby, 1998).
The topic is of interest to politicians, regulators, and environmental scientists, including students, ecologists, and public health offcials dealing with
smoke from fres one day and airborne viruses the next. And it can have practical consequences in explaining tragic accidents, like the fatal crash of a TWA
airliner on Long Island, and deteriorating air quality in the valleys and air
basins of the West. It can answer concerns over wildlife—why hawks and
other valuable species become sick and die from exposures in orchards. And
why some species, amphibians and others, are disappearing from mountainous terrains, perhaps due to the presence of endocrine system disruptors that
are residues from synthetic chemicals.