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Nitrate pollution and politics
86
Book reviews
selective grazing by animals. Two papers are particularly worthy o f mention. One of these is the overview by Susmel and colleagues on the issues to be addressed when evaluating feed intake by grazing animals. The other paper concerns the unusual study in Scotland by Salt and Mayes, who carried out a controlled field experiment, injecting radiocaesium into hill pastures, which showed that one apparently insignificant plant species that consulted only 3% o f sheep diet could provide up to 30% of Cs intake at certain times of the year. The final session of the conference covered effects o f fertilisers and other chemicals on radionuclide contamination levels. The seven papers are primarily concerned with the use of fertilisers as ameliorative measures to reduce uptake of radionuclides into vegetation from the soil, and highlight the complexity of potassium behaviour in this respect. The remainder of the book consists of 32 short papers from the conference's poster sessions, covering a range of subjects. Some emphasis is given here to fungi and their potential for use as bioindicators. Out of subjects not covered elsewhere in the book, the studies on transfer of radionuclides from heather to herbivorous insects, on pathways o f radioiodine in rice (which show volatilisation), and on the effects o f glyphosate on uptake of plutonium and americium by vegetation can be highlighted. This b o o k must be compulsory reading for all radioecologists and also of value to others concerned with mineral cycling in ecosystems. Finally, despite the massive effort and shift in focus of research after Chernobyl, one is left with the uncomfortable feeling that in the unfortunate case o f another accident, there might be a totally different scenario in terms of radionuclides and ecosystems impacted which we have still failed to consider. J. N. B. Bell Nitrate Pollution and Politics. By Jobst Conrad. Published for Avesbury Studies in Green Research by Gower Publications Ltd, Aldershot, 1990, 82pp. ISBN 0-56607147-9. Price: £28.00. This book discusses the nitrate pollution in three countries; Great Britain, Germany and Holland and compares both the scientific information available and the political approaches to this problem. The basic idea of the book is excellent. However, the author does not present any new scientific information on the subject. More valuable scientific information is given for Germany (and also a greater volume of information), than for the other two countries. Table 2.2 is a useful comparison of agricultural area and land use in the three countries, but again this is not new information. The information on derogations for nitrate in drinking water in England (Table 2.3) dates from 1985, whereas the G e r m a n and Dutch data is from 1988.
The political policy reviews on the problem are again unbalanced, with the German policies receiving nearly nine pages, whereas the other two countries receive eight pages in total. Table 6.1 summarizes all the political policies of the three countries and is very useful. Unfortunately, Fig. 6.1 is rather complicated to be of any real significance. After reading the book I was disappointed that there was no really new information and that the book tended to repeat itself when discussing political policy systems in the three countries. The book has been well produced and edited although there is an obvious omission on page 24, where it states 'According to Section o f the EC drinking water'. I believe the book as stated does contribute some hints on answering the questions' on nitrate pollution and policy but I am afraid that I cannot recommend it as essential reading for those interested in this subject. H. Casey New Developments in Industrial Wasteu,ater Treatment. Edited by A. Turkman and O. Uslu. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1991,258 pp. ISBN 0-792-31070-5. Price: Dill50.00, US$94.00, £52.00. This book is an account o f a N A T O Advanced Research Workshop held in Turkey, a country in need of improved effluent treatment, late in 1989. The sixteen contributions are intelligible, but mostly unstylish; this is an achievement since English was probably the mother tongue of only one speaker. The contents could be summarised in the following blocks (though the book is not in a rational sequence): water quality and analysis; pre-treatment; biological treatments; water re-use; physical and inorganic chemical processes. There are great variations in both the length of the articles and the style, clarity and usefulness of the illustrations and tables. Besides the speakers there were twelve participants, predominantly from Turkey, and what they made of it all we do not know because there is no account o f the discussion. As an academic reviewer, admittedly with relevant practical background, I cannot be qualified to judge all the contributions. To me, the long, thorough and structured review of the application of the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket process by Lettinga and Hulshoff Pol is outstanding, though much of this information is available elsewhere. By contrast a review of physical chemical treatment reads as an unintegrated sequence of snippets (including inadvertent biological treatment) though the predicament was probably not under the author's control. An example of useful theory giving structure and facilitating understanding comes from one o f the editors in an account of polymer use for C O D removal. The suspicion that theory, and especially the beautiful correlation o f two dimensionless numbers, can be used merely to decorate a hopeful story of invention came to me by comparing the esoteric text on an
Book reviews
selective grazing by animals. Two papers are particularly worthy o f mention. One of these is the overview by Susmel and colleagues on the issues to be addressed when evaluating feed intake by grazing animals. The other paper concerns the unusual study in Scotland by Salt and Mayes, who carried out a controlled field experiment, injecting radiocaesium into hill pastures, which showed that one apparently insignificant plant species that consulted only 3% o f sheep diet could provide up to 30% of Cs intake at certain times of the year. The final session of the conference covered effects o f fertilisers and other chemicals on radionuclide contamination levels. The seven papers are primarily concerned with the use of fertilisers as ameliorative measures to reduce uptake of radionuclides into vegetation from the soil, and highlight the complexity of potassium behaviour in this respect. The remainder of the book consists of 32 short papers from the conference's poster sessions, covering a range of subjects. Some emphasis is given here to fungi and their potential for use as bioindicators. Out of subjects not covered elsewhere in the book, the studies on transfer of radionuclides from heather to herbivorous insects, on pathways o f radioiodine in rice (which show volatilisation), and on the effects o f glyphosate on uptake of plutonium and americium by vegetation can be highlighted. This b o o k must be compulsory reading for all radioecologists and also of value to others concerned with mineral cycling in ecosystems. Finally, despite the massive effort and shift in focus of research after Chernobyl, one is left with the uncomfortable feeling that in the unfortunate case o f another accident, there might be a totally different scenario in terms of radionuclides and ecosystems impacted which we have still failed to consider. J. N. B. Bell Nitrate Pollution and Politics. By Jobst Conrad. Published for Avesbury Studies in Green Research by Gower Publications Ltd, Aldershot, 1990, 82pp. ISBN 0-56607147-9. Price: £28.00. This book discusses the nitrate pollution in three countries; Great Britain, Germany and Holland and compares both the scientific information available and the political approaches to this problem. The basic idea of the book is excellent. However, the author does not present any new scientific information on the subject. More valuable scientific information is given for Germany (and also a greater volume of information), than for the other two countries. Table 2.2 is a useful comparison of agricultural area and land use in the three countries, but again this is not new information. The information on derogations for nitrate in drinking water in England (Table 2.3) dates from 1985, whereas the G e r m a n and Dutch data is from 1988.
The political policy reviews on the problem are again unbalanced, with the German policies receiving nearly nine pages, whereas the other two countries receive eight pages in total. Table 6.1 summarizes all the political policies of the three countries and is very useful. Unfortunately, Fig. 6.1 is rather complicated to be of any real significance. After reading the book I was disappointed that there was no really new information and that the book tended to repeat itself when discussing political policy systems in the three countries. The book has been well produced and edited although there is an obvious omission on page 24, where it states 'According to Section o f the EC drinking water'. I believe the book as stated does contribute some hints on answering the questions' on nitrate pollution and policy but I am afraid that I cannot recommend it as essential reading for those interested in this subject. H. Casey New Developments in Industrial Wasteu,ater Treatment. Edited by A. Turkman and O. Uslu. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1991,258 pp. ISBN 0-792-31070-5. Price: Dill50.00, US$94.00, £52.00. This book is an account o f a N A T O Advanced Research Workshop held in Turkey, a country in need of improved effluent treatment, late in 1989. The sixteen contributions are intelligible, but mostly unstylish; this is an achievement since English was probably the mother tongue of only one speaker. The contents could be summarised in the following blocks (though the book is not in a rational sequence): water quality and analysis; pre-treatment; biological treatments; water re-use; physical and inorganic chemical processes. There are great variations in both the length of the articles and the style, clarity and usefulness of the illustrations and tables. Besides the speakers there were twelve participants, predominantly from Turkey, and what they made of it all we do not know because there is no account o f the discussion. As an academic reviewer, admittedly with relevant practical background, I cannot be qualified to judge all the contributions. To me, the long, thorough and structured review of the application of the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket process by Lettinga and Hulshoff Pol is outstanding, though much of this information is available elsewhere. By contrast a review of physical chemical treatment reads as an unintegrated sequence of snippets (including inadvertent biological treatment) though the predicament was probably not under the author's control. An example of useful theory giving structure and facilitating understanding comes from one o f the editors in an account of polymer use for C O D removal. The suspicion that theory, and especially the beautiful correlation o f two dimensionless numbers, can be used merely to decorate a hopeful story of invention came to me by comparing the esoteric text on an