Hazards & Safety
Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia
Contents, Format
This document is designed as a tool which can be used to quickly ascertain general
information about the 118 elements, compounds, and products listed in
Entries,
Filenames. It is also a quick reference in helping one decide whether
or not concentrations are above levels which might cause impacts upon living
things.
Information in the Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia
was taken from the following sources:
- books
- journal articles
- government documents
- electronic databases (e.g. Hazardous Substances Data Bank
from the National Library of Medicine)
- personal communications
References are documented as numbers within brackets, using the format of the
Journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, with all references listed
in numerical order in a separate file labeled "REFERENC" (
REFERENC.pdf).
This file can be downloaded from the
Encylcopedia
Listing page."
An attempt was made to summarize information
helpful in interpreting residue data from the following
media:
- Water
- Sediments
- Soil
- Tissues
This emphasis can be seen in the overall
organization of the information presented. Often what a
specialist first needs to know is whether or not certain
chemical concentrations are normal, high, or exceeding
some benchmark (such as regulatory standards or criteria).
Therefore, the "backbone" of the Environmental Contaminants
Encyclopedia emphasizes concentration data:
- low, typical and high environmental
concentrations found in other parts of the country
and world, and
- concentrations that are toxic to various
organisms, and
- standards, criteria, and other benchmark
values.
Many types of information other than environmental, regulatory,
and toxic concentrations are also in the Encyclopedia,
including brief sections at the beginning of each entry
which give general overviews on the compound, its hazards,
its more dangerous toxic effects (carcinogenic, developmental,
reproductive, endocrine, genotoxic), and its environmental
fate. (NOTE: the user may want to start reading these sections
first, since many "bottom line" summaries are in these "Brief" sections.)
Whenever possible, "plain-language" summaries and explanations
were used in introductory sections.
Included is important summary information
(such as government grey literature and personal communications)
that is otherwise difficult to find via searches of
electronic or peer reviewed sources.
