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Chemical ecotoxicology
88
Book rev~ws
a good measure of earthy good sense: on the other hand its presentation is spoilt by sideswipes at unworldly academics and irrational conservationists which by their frequency made the reviewer question Professor Mellanby's ability to differentiate between subjective and objective judgements. He, like the rest of us, has his frailties and, furthermore, to use a well-worn phrase, he is not averse to being economical (selective) with the truth when sometimes seeking support for his own interpretations. In short Professor Mellanby has presented his own views (scientific and political). He aimed to reach conclusions accepting that they might be illuminating, controversial and sometimes optimistic. In this he has succeeded but I would question some of his analyses--he has a fine sense of cut and thrust but has he really been dispassionate?
route by which the metal can be accumulated by the biosphere is from the atmosphere via absorption and inhalation, soil is prominently shown but there is no soil to biosphere link to acknowledge plant uptake from soil as a biosphere accumulation route; (2) no explanation is offered to explain why, in a diagram of the reservoirs and annual fluxes of global phosphorus, there is an apparent annual flux deficit of 86 million tons in the terrestrial part of the system. This book does not live up to its description (on the back cover) of 'an essential reference and textbook for anyone involved with the environmental aspects of chemistry, biology, engineering, agriculture, toxicology and other related areas'. M. H. Martin
F. T. Last
Chemical Ecotoxicology. By J. Paasiviria. Lewis Publishers Inc., Chelsea, USA. pp. xxii + 210, 1991. ISBN 0-87371-366-4. Price: $59.95 in US; $66.00 outside US. Chemical ecotoxicology is defined by the author as follows: 'chemical ecotoxicology applies methods of chemistry to the study of the occurrence and adverse effects of anthropogenic chemicals and their transformation products in the biosphere' The book is claimed to be an in-depth discussion of risk assessment, chemical cycles, structure-activity relationships, organohalogens, oil residues, mercury, sampling and analysis of trace metals, and emissions from the forest industry. It is true that the ten chapter headings apparently cover all these topics; however there is only superficial coverage of many of them and the number of supporting literature references varies greatly from chapter to chapter; viz. 7 for the chapter on Cycles of Chemicals in the Environment and 58 for the slightly shorter text in the chapter on Emissions from the Forest Industry. The text of this book is slim when one takes into account the number of figures (mostly about half page in size), tables, references and the commendable index. There is thus too little room in the text to explain and fully exploit the numerous text figures. It is therefore surprising to find a profligate waste of space by including not only a full list of contents but also 12 pages listing all the figure and table captions word for word as they appear in the main part of the book. The chemistry in the book is adequately covered but is often not in sufficient detail to be useful to nonchemists. The chapter on Cycles of Chemicals in the Environment is poor, being inconsistent and simplistic in places and lacking in explanation and comment relevant to some uncritically used figures. Two examples will suffice: (1) in a diagram of the main transport processes in the biogeochemical cycle of a metal, the only
Marine Pollution. By Professor R. B. Clark. Oxford University Press, 3rd edn, 1992, 172 pp. ISBN 0-19854685-8. Price: £16.50. This is the third edition of a well-known book, which is addressed to undergraduate students of environmental sciences. The general layout and contents of the book remain the same as in the second edition, but the data presented in the chapters have been updated to the present information. The writing of an introductory textbook on marine pollution for undergraduate students, presents many challenges. There must be a blending of simplicity and scientific detail, along with the encouragement of independent thinking and scientific judgement. On this basis, I find 'Marine Pollution' a complete success and of valuable assistance to any undergraduate student involved with the subject. I may say that I also find the book of interest to any environmental scientist, especially chapter 10, on the assessment of marine pollution. The book is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter deals with the difficult question 'What is pollution'. Although this appears to be a straightforward question, it is not. In this chapter Prof. Clark lays the foundations of the philosophy which flows throughout his book: for the environmental scientist, pollution is not just a 'bad thing'; this judgement must be quantified and the right questions must be asked in order to derive useful answers. Therefore, in order to formulate the questions, information is needed on the categories of pollutants entering the sea, their nature, their sources, the definition of what is pollution, the priorities and the cost of pollution abatement. All these issues are briefly presented, as a definition of the scope, before any further analysis. Prof. Clark makes it clear that in his opinion, the environmental scientist must approach dispassionately the marine pollution issue (as any other scientific issue). However, because of the strong personal feelings of people on environmental problems, and since pollution has become a matter of ideology, especially among students of environmental studies, it becomes difficult to distinguish between envi-
Book rev~ws
a good measure of earthy good sense: on the other hand its presentation is spoilt by sideswipes at unworldly academics and irrational conservationists which by their frequency made the reviewer question Professor Mellanby's ability to differentiate between subjective and objective judgements. He, like the rest of us, has his frailties and, furthermore, to use a well-worn phrase, he is not averse to being economical (selective) with the truth when sometimes seeking support for his own interpretations. In short Professor Mellanby has presented his own views (scientific and political). He aimed to reach conclusions accepting that they might be illuminating, controversial and sometimes optimistic. In this he has succeeded but I would question some of his analyses--he has a fine sense of cut and thrust but has he really been dispassionate?
route by which the metal can be accumulated by the biosphere is from the atmosphere via absorption and inhalation, soil is prominently shown but there is no soil to biosphere link to acknowledge plant uptake from soil as a biosphere accumulation route; (2) no explanation is offered to explain why, in a diagram of the reservoirs and annual fluxes of global phosphorus, there is an apparent annual flux deficit of 86 million tons in the terrestrial part of the system. This book does not live up to its description (on the back cover) of 'an essential reference and textbook for anyone involved with the environmental aspects of chemistry, biology, engineering, agriculture, toxicology and other related areas'. M. H. Martin
F. T. Last
Chemical Ecotoxicology. By J. Paasiviria. Lewis Publishers Inc., Chelsea, USA. pp. xxii + 210, 1991. ISBN 0-87371-366-4. Price: $59.95 in US; $66.00 outside US. Chemical ecotoxicology is defined by the author as follows: 'chemical ecotoxicology applies methods of chemistry to the study of the occurrence and adverse effects of anthropogenic chemicals and their transformation products in the biosphere' The book is claimed to be an in-depth discussion of risk assessment, chemical cycles, structure-activity relationships, organohalogens, oil residues, mercury, sampling and analysis of trace metals, and emissions from the forest industry. It is true that the ten chapter headings apparently cover all these topics; however there is only superficial coverage of many of them and the number of supporting literature references varies greatly from chapter to chapter; viz. 7 for the chapter on Cycles of Chemicals in the Environment and 58 for the slightly shorter text in the chapter on Emissions from the Forest Industry. The text of this book is slim when one takes into account the number of figures (mostly about half page in size), tables, references and the commendable index. There is thus too little room in the text to explain and fully exploit the numerous text figures. It is therefore surprising to find a profligate waste of space by including not only a full list of contents but also 12 pages listing all the figure and table captions word for word as they appear in the main part of the book. The chemistry in the book is adequately covered but is often not in sufficient detail to be useful to nonchemists. The chapter on Cycles of Chemicals in the Environment is poor, being inconsistent and simplistic in places and lacking in explanation and comment relevant to some uncritically used figures. Two examples will suffice: (1) in a diagram of the main transport processes in the biogeochemical cycle of a metal, the only
Marine Pollution. By Professor R. B. Clark. Oxford University Press, 3rd edn, 1992, 172 pp. ISBN 0-19854685-8. Price: £16.50. This is the third edition of a well-known book, which is addressed to undergraduate students of environmental sciences. The general layout and contents of the book remain the same as in the second edition, but the data presented in the chapters have been updated to the present information. The writing of an introductory textbook on marine pollution for undergraduate students, presents many challenges. There must be a blending of simplicity and scientific detail, along with the encouragement of independent thinking and scientific judgement. On this basis, I find 'Marine Pollution' a complete success and of valuable assistance to any undergraduate student involved with the subject. I may say that I also find the book of interest to any environmental scientist, especially chapter 10, on the assessment of marine pollution. The book is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter deals with the difficult question 'What is pollution'. Although this appears to be a straightforward question, it is not. In this chapter Prof. Clark lays the foundations of the philosophy which flows throughout his book: for the environmental scientist, pollution is not just a 'bad thing'; this judgement must be quantified and the right questions must be asked in order to derive useful answers. Therefore, in order to formulate the questions, information is needed on the categories of pollutants entering the sea, their nature, their sources, the definition of what is pollution, the priorities and the cost of pollution abatement. All these issues are briefly presented, as a definition of the scope, before any further analysis. Prof. Clark makes it clear that in his opinion, the environmental scientist must approach dispassionately the marine pollution issue (as any other scientific issue). However, because of the strong personal feelings of people on environmental problems, and since pollution has become a matter of ideology, especially among students of environmental studies, it becomes difficult to distinguish between envi-