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Trace metals in the environment 3—zircomium
880
Book reviews
provenance is rather ditTerent. The small number of people whose concern for air pollution predates the decade of the 1970‘s may recall that the first Federal Air Pollution Act. passed in 1955, was predicated on the notion that the espenditure of somethingunder 525 million over a period of five years would solve most of the nation’s problems. When it failed to do so. there was some real concern that the Congress, rather than extending the Act, might act in a punitive fashion, and cancel the whole business. Accordingly, a slim volume was prepared and published by the U.S. Public Health Service. detailing all of the reasearch progress that had been made during that period. It had some typically bureaucratic title such as “Progress in Air Pollution Research. l955-1960”. but I and the other contributors to it (not, as 1 recall, identified by name in the final document) customarily referred to it as “Five Years in the Smog.” In a real sense, it appears that the history of Transuranic Elrmenrs in rhe Enrironmmr was somewhat similar, with the OtIice of Health and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy defending its continued existence by recounting its accomplishments of about the past live years. The authors are here identified; they are all either employees or employees of contractors of the U.S. Department of Energy. On the other hand. having had quite a bit more funds than we had for air pollution research in the late 1950’s. they have produced a far thicker volume. In fact, overall. it is an excellent volume. It is by no means as uniform as the ones reviewed above; the papers tend to be reports of individual projects or groups of projects, rather than major topical reviews. Nevertheless, the coverage is impressive. The index is inferior to that of Nriagu’s books, but still will locate most major topics within the volume. If there are similarities among the three volumes, there are also differences. Keeping in mind the general apologetic purpose of the present volume, it largely avoids questions of human toxicology, devoting only a single briefchapter to the subject. It lays stress on the very low average insult worldwide from plutonium and other transuranics, tending to stress the fact that physiological impact to date is statistically indistinguishable from zero. There is no discussion whatever of the potential hazard of the widespread use of americium in smoke detection systems. Since this is largely a report ofwork sponsored by the Department of Energy and the ancestral Atomic Energy Commission, results that are seriously at variance with the majority view, such as the quite alarming theories of E. A. Martell and others of his persuasion are, so far as I can detect, omitted. It should also be noted that, when one says “transuranic elements,” one really means plutonium so far as any sizable accumulation of knowledge is concerned. There is far less information on the other transuranic elements, among other things because they appear to be produced in markedly lower amounts. It is tempting, given the political climate of the day, to write some sort of moralistic speculation on which chapters might have been omitted from Nriagu’s books, had his publisher been the trade association of nickel or cadmium producers. However, I think this would do the present volume an injustice. It starts out at the beginning to examine the effects on the nonhuman environment, primarily on a global basis. Others have published studies of the profound ecological changes that occur locally when a massive radiation source has deliberately intruded into the environment. It is not at all specific to the particular nuclide involved. There is no point in castagating a book for failing to do something that was not intended in the first place. The authors and editor are to be congratulated forgetting so much of the information that has been buried in individual, rather obscure reports in the gray literature out into the open in a handsomely-bound monograph. On balance, this is a good and scholarly work, and a virtual necessity for those specifically concerned with the environmental impact of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. A careful reading will reveal that, if it is not a book to gladden the heart of Amory Lovins and Jane Fonda, it falls
considerably short of giving aid and comfort to those who maintain that unrestrained proliferation of sources of transuranics is positively good for the world. JAMES P. LODGE. Jr.
in the Environment, Part I Ecological Cycling xi Heal& Effects xii + 488~~. L28.50. Sulfur in the Environment, Part I The Atmospheric Cycle xii + 464~~. L23. Part II Ecological Impacts xii + 482~~. &24. Copper
+ 522~~. L28. Part II
All edited by Jerome 0. Nriagu and published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Chichester and New York. Trace Metals
in the Environment
3-Zircomium
by Ivan C.
Smith and Bonnie L. Carson xviii + 405~~. L 15.20. 4-Palladium aod Osmium by Ivan C. Smith, Bonnie L. Carson and Thomas L. Ferguson ix + 193~~. Al5.20. Both published by Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Straight away I can answer the two points raised by Jim Lodge in his first paragraph (i) He did not get the John Wiley books because they came here and (ii) there are indeed more books on “X in the Environment” not edited by Dr. Nriagu. I should perhaps note that there are three other books in the Ann Arbor series (I-Thallium, 2-Silver and 5Indium) all by Smith and Carson and none of these have been received for review. The Ann Arbor series are written by the named authors and are produced as camera ready copy. The John Wiley series is typeset and consists of chapters by different authors, many of whose names will be familiar to readers of Atmospheric Encironmenr as the contents list of the Sulfur volume shows, Parr I.
I. Production and Uses of Sulfur (Jerome 0. Nriagu). 2. Sources of Sulfur-The Global Sulfur Cycle (Michael R. Moss). 3. Organosulfur Emissions from Industrial Sources (Satya P. Bhatia). 4. Sulfur Dioxide-Emission Control: Costs and Benefits (Lyndon R. Babcock Jr.). 5. Dispersal Models for Sulfur Oxides Around Chimneys and Tall Stacks (Ulf Hogstrom). 6. Dispersal Models for Sulfur Oxides in Urban Environments (Kenneth L. Brubaker and Donald M. Rote). 7. Long-Range Transport and Deposition of Sulfur Oxides (Bernard E. A. Fisher). 8. Atmospheric Chemistry of Sulfur-containing Pollutants (Paul Urone and William H. Schroeder). 9. Acid Precipitation (James R. Kramer). 10. Determination of Atmospheric Gaseous and Particulate Sulfur Compounds (Roger L. Tanner, Joseph Forrest and Leonard Newman). Part II. 1. Deteriorative Effects of Sulfur Pollution on Materials
(Jerome 0. Nriagu). 2. Effects of Sulfur Oxides on Animals (Mary 0. Amdur). 3. Health Consequences of Human Exposure (Carl M. Shy). 4. Effects of Air-Borne Sulfur Pollutants on Plants (Samuel N. Lizon). 5. Physiological and Biochemical Effects of Sulfur Dioxide on Plants (Jon-Eric Hallgren). 6. Chemistry of Pollutant Sulfur in Natural Waters (Jerome 0. Nriagu and John D. Hem). 7. Sulfur Pollution and the Aquatic Ecosystem (Brodde Abner, William Dickson, Christina Ekstriim and Einar Hornstrom). 8. The Acid Mine Drainage (Paul Barton). 9. Sulfur Pollution and Soil (Marvin Nyborg). 10. Naturally Occurring Organosulfur Compounds in Soils (John W. Fitzgerald). 11.Microbial Transformations ofsulfur in the Environment (Stephen H. Zinder and Thomas D. Brock). The chapter on cost-benefit analysis is interesting. in Particular 3 graphs showing cost (estimate damage and control cost) as a function of sulphur in coal. For 2 y0S the minimum is at zero recovery (but with little change up to 80
Book revtews per cent recovery) shifting to 80 per cent for A”,, and 90 per cent for 6 “,, S. The damage falls near to zero at 99 per cent recovery, so presumably the material removed is assumed to have zero cost to the environment. which is questionable. In any case, if we can believe the figures, there is little benefit from control of S emission at British coal fired power stations. The two books on copper are well presented and comprehensive. In Part I, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 the Global Copper Cycle and Copper in the Atmosphere and Precipitation (both by the Editor) are of direct concern to our readers. There is also a chapter on contamination of ecosystems by smelter activities and a chapter on copper tn soils and sediments. Hallsworth and Adams are quoted in Chapter 7 as demonstrating that copper in rainfall in central England near three coal fired power stations could be attributed mostly to fly ash. This seems to be at variance with later findings. In Part II there is a chapter on Environmental and Occupational Exposure concluding that under ordinary circumstances copper is a benign agent. There are also interesting chapters on human health effects and toxicity of copper to aquatic biota. During the war, I was evacuated to a small village where we habitually committed the crime of riding two on a bike. A cycling copper was therefore potentially an object of fear in our environment. Fortunately the village bobby was overweight and should have been superannuated some years before, but had been kept-at his post for the duration of hostilities. We were thus able to cycle more rapidly, even with two up, than the copper. Provided we re-cycled home up another lane, we could therefore avoid harmful effects. Today, the situation is not so straightforward. The writing on the wall (graffiti) bids us “Help the police, beat yourself up”. It seems the young of today (one assumes the scribes are young) fear that the health effects of coppers could be serious. The same perhaps goes for copper. DAVID J. MOORE
The Physical Environment by B. K. Ridley. Ellis Horwood Series in Environmental Science, Chichester. England 1979. 236 pp. Typeset Hardcover. Price L8.50. The book is intended for students on environmental courses, and of the pure and applied sciences and for general readingschools, colleges, universities and public libraries. It has a subject index and an appendix gives symbols for units, multipliers and values for physical constants and other useful quantities. After the introduction, there are chapters on day and night, earth time, the structure of the earth, the earth’s crust, continental drift, natural forces, the atmosphere, the celestial sphere and origins. There is also a section of problems with answers for each chapter. The book is well illustrated and there is a list of further reading at the end of each chapter, including some original papers. There are three pages on pollution in the chapter on the atmosphere. Looking at energy flow, the atmospheric circulation is credited with lO”MW, but usable power is put at 5 x 1O‘MW. which works out at 1MW for every 10’ km2 of earth’s surface, which seems grossly pessimistic, probably by a factor of 10’. The estimate for tidal basins. 6000 MW. also seems surprisingly low. The reasoning behind this is to arbitrarily limit any surface collection to 0.17; the earth’s surface. At least the figures are there for the reader to draw his own conclusions. The book is written in a readable style and is recommended for the readership for whom it is intended. DAVID J. MOORE
881
Exploration of the Polar Upper Atmosphere. C. S. Deehr End J. A. Holted (Ed). D. Reidel. Dordrecht, 1980. Camera ready format. hard cover xvi + 498. Price SI 10.00. Dvonmics of the Upper Atmosphere, by Susanne Kato, D. Retdel. Dordrecht, 1980. Printed in Japan hard cover xiii 7 233.
The first of these books is a collection of tutorial lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Lillehammer. Sorway. 5-16 May 1980. Of most interest to readers of .-lrmo~phrric Enuironmenr are the papers in part 1. “Middle Atmosphere (tropopause to 100km) Dynamics and Composition” by Marvin A. Geller. which was prepared while the author was on the faculty of the University of Miami (this seems to be a sensible place to study the polar upper atmosphere)and”Wind induced Composition Effectsat High Altitudes” by H. G. Mayer and I. Harris. The remaining papers are mainly concerned with very high altitudes. The second book is a mathematically orientated introduction to the dynamics of the earth’s upper atmosphere, with special emphasis on and tidal waves and their ionospheric effects. Seither book is concerned with man’s influence. It is interesting to note that Silverman and Fenyman conclude their paper on “The Changing Aurora of the Past Three Centuries” with “. the variation of the configuration ofthe magnetosphere during the last three centuries has been much greater than has been observed to date since in si~uspace observations began”. It can only be.a matter of time before the modelling of the effects of surface emissions, which already extends to the lower stratosphere, reaches these levels as well. At the present time it appears that the “natural” phenomena are not fully understood. Such an understanding must precede any attempt to assess the effects of man’s interference at these levels.
DAVID J. MOORE
Wind Effects on Buildings. Vol. I. Design Applications, by T. V. Lawson, Applied Science Publishers, Barking, Essex, U.K.. 1980. Hard cover, typeset, xix + 318 pp. Price-L 22. Hind Effects on Buildines. Vol. 2. Statistics and Meteorology, by T. V. Lawson, Applied Science Publishers, Barking, Essex, U.K., 1980. Hard cover, typeset, x + 158 pp. Price d 12.
The author has been an Associate Editor of Atmospheric Enrironmenr for many years. Readers of the Journal are perhaps, on the whole, more concerned with the effect of buildings on the wind. It is therefore comforting to find some reference to wakes in Volume 1, pp. 137-139 and 88-89 and to interference between buildings pp. 228-230. There is also a short chapter on pollution in the environment of buildings and a longer one on heating and ventilating which is matnly concerned with chimneys. Chapter 13 deals with cooling effects on people. A chapter on wind tunnel investigations includes some discussion of anemometers, but the reader is referred to the literature for details. On the question of whether the whole depth of the boundary layer should be modelled the author states that .‘. the idea that it is only necessary to simulate . the lower quarter to one third of the layer is almost universally followed.‘* The major advantage of this part simulation is that it allows the linear scale of the model to be increased by a factor of about three. Since most modern studies of atmospheric boundary layers appear to scale the longitudinal and lateral turbulence to the boundary layer depth, it is difficult to conceive how a true representation of the real flow can be achieved with only part
Book reviews
provenance is rather ditTerent. The small number of people whose concern for air pollution predates the decade of the 1970‘s may recall that the first Federal Air Pollution Act. passed in 1955, was predicated on the notion that the espenditure of somethingunder 525 million over a period of five years would solve most of the nation’s problems. When it failed to do so. there was some real concern that the Congress, rather than extending the Act, might act in a punitive fashion, and cancel the whole business. Accordingly, a slim volume was prepared and published by the U.S. Public Health Service. detailing all of the reasearch progress that had been made during that period. It had some typically bureaucratic title such as “Progress in Air Pollution Research. l955-1960”. but I and the other contributors to it (not, as 1 recall, identified by name in the final document) customarily referred to it as “Five Years in the Smog.” In a real sense, it appears that the history of Transuranic Elrmenrs in rhe Enrironmmr was somewhat similar, with the OtIice of Health and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy defending its continued existence by recounting its accomplishments of about the past live years. The authors are here identified; they are all either employees or employees of contractors of the U.S. Department of Energy. On the other hand. having had quite a bit more funds than we had for air pollution research in the late 1950’s. they have produced a far thicker volume. In fact, overall. it is an excellent volume. It is by no means as uniform as the ones reviewed above; the papers tend to be reports of individual projects or groups of projects, rather than major topical reviews. Nevertheless, the coverage is impressive. The index is inferior to that of Nriagu’s books, but still will locate most major topics within the volume. If there are similarities among the three volumes, there are also differences. Keeping in mind the general apologetic purpose of the present volume, it largely avoids questions of human toxicology, devoting only a single briefchapter to the subject. It lays stress on the very low average insult worldwide from plutonium and other transuranics, tending to stress the fact that physiological impact to date is statistically indistinguishable from zero. There is no discussion whatever of the potential hazard of the widespread use of americium in smoke detection systems. Since this is largely a report ofwork sponsored by the Department of Energy and the ancestral Atomic Energy Commission, results that are seriously at variance with the majority view, such as the quite alarming theories of E. A. Martell and others of his persuasion are, so far as I can detect, omitted. It should also be noted that, when one says “transuranic elements,” one really means plutonium so far as any sizable accumulation of knowledge is concerned. There is far less information on the other transuranic elements, among other things because they appear to be produced in markedly lower amounts. It is tempting, given the political climate of the day, to write some sort of moralistic speculation on which chapters might have been omitted from Nriagu’s books, had his publisher been the trade association of nickel or cadmium producers. However, I think this would do the present volume an injustice. It starts out at the beginning to examine the effects on the nonhuman environment, primarily on a global basis. Others have published studies of the profound ecological changes that occur locally when a massive radiation source has deliberately intruded into the environment. It is not at all specific to the particular nuclide involved. There is no point in castagating a book for failing to do something that was not intended in the first place. The authors and editor are to be congratulated forgetting so much of the information that has been buried in individual, rather obscure reports in the gray literature out into the open in a handsomely-bound monograph. On balance, this is a good and scholarly work, and a virtual necessity for those specifically concerned with the environmental impact of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. A careful reading will reveal that, if it is not a book to gladden the heart of Amory Lovins and Jane Fonda, it falls
considerably short of giving aid and comfort to those who maintain that unrestrained proliferation of sources of transuranics is positively good for the world. JAMES P. LODGE. Jr.
in the Environment, Part I Ecological Cycling xi Heal& Effects xii + 488~~. L28.50. Sulfur in the Environment, Part I The Atmospheric Cycle xii + 464~~. L23. Part II Ecological Impacts xii + 482~~. &24. Copper
+ 522~~. L28. Part II
All edited by Jerome 0. Nriagu and published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Chichester and New York. Trace Metals
in the Environment
3-Zircomium
by Ivan C.
Smith and Bonnie L. Carson xviii + 405~~. L 15.20. 4-Palladium aod Osmium by Ivan C. Smith, Bonnie L. Carson and Thomas L. Ferguson ix + 193~~. Al5.20. Both published by Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Straight away I can answer the two points raised by Jim Lodge in his first paragraph (i) He did not get the John Wiley books because they came here and (ii) there are indeed more books on “X in the Environment” not edited by Dr. Nriagu. I should perhaps note that there are three other books in the Ann Arbor series (I-Thallium, 2-Silver and 5Indium) all by Smith and Carson and none of these have been received for review. The Ann Arbor series are written by the named authors and are produced as camera ready copy. The John Wiley series is typeset and consists of chapters by different authors, many of whose names will be familiar to readers of Atmospheric Encironmenr as the contents list of the Sulfur volume shows, Parr I.
I. Production and Uses of Sulfur (Jerome 0. Nriagu). 2. Sources of Sulfur-The Global Sulfur Cycle (Michael R. Moss). 3. Organosulfur Emissions from Industrial Sources (Satya P. Bhatia). 4. Sulfur Dioxide-Emission Control: Costs and Benefits (Lyndon R. Babcock Jr.). 5. Dispersal Models for Sulfur Oxides Around Chimneys and Tall Stacks (Ulf Hogstrom). 6. Dispersal Models for Sulfur Oxides in Urban Environments (Kenneth L. Brubaker and Donald M. Rote). 7. Long-Range Transport and Deposition of Sulfur Oxides (Bernard E. A. Fisher). 8. Atmospheric Chemistry of Sulfur-containing Pollutants (Paul Urone and William H. Schroeder). 9. Acid Precipitation (James R. Kramer). 10. Determination of Atmospheric Gaseous and Particulate Sulfur Compounds (Roger L. Tanner, Joseph Forrest and Leonard Newman). Part II. 1. Deteriorative Effects of Sulfur Pollution on Materials
(Jerome 0. Nriagu). 2. Effects of Sulfur Oxides on Animals (Mary 0. Amdur). 3. Health Consequences of Human Exposure (Carl M. Shy). 4. Effects of Air-Borne Sulfur Pollutants on Plants (Samuel N. Lizon). 5. Physiological and Biochemical Effects of Sulfur Dioxide on Plants (Jon-Eric Hallgren). 6. Chemistry of Pollutant Sulfur in Natural Waters (Jerome 0. Nriagu and John D. Hem). 7. Sulfur Pollution and the Aquatic Ecosystem (Brodde Abner, William Dickson, Christina Ekstriim and Einar Hornstrom). 8. The Acid Mine Drainage (Paul Barton). 9. Sulfur Pollution and Soil (Marvin Nyborg). 10. Naturally Occurring Organosulfur Compounds in Soils (John W. Fitzgerald). 11.Microbial Transformations ofsulfur in the Environment (Stephen H. Zinder and Thomas D. Brock). The chapter on cost-benefit analysis is interesting. in Particular 3 graphs showing cost (estimate damage and control cost) as a function of sulphur in coal. For 2 y0S the minimum is at zero recovery (but with little change up to 80
Book revtews per cent recovery) shifting to 80 per cent for A”,, and 90 per cent for 6 “,, S. The damage falls near to zero at 99 per cent recovery, so presumably the material removed is assumed to have zero cost to the environment. which is questionable. In any case, if we can believe the figures, there is little benefit from control of S emission at British coal fired power stations. The two books on copper are well presented and comprehensive. In Part I, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 the Global Copper Cycle and Copper in the Atmosphere and Precipitation (both by the Editor) are of direct concern to our readers. There is also a chapter on contamination of ecosystems by smelter activities and a chapter on copper tn soils and sediments. Hallsworth and Adams are quoted in Chapter 7 as demonstrating that copper in rainfall in central England near three coal fired power stations could be attributed mostly to fly ash. This seems to be at variance with later findings. In Part II there is a chapter on Environmental and Occupational Exposure concluding that under ordinary circumstances copper is a benign agent. There are also interesting chapters on human health effects and toxicity of copper to aquatic biota. During the war, I was evacuated to a small village where we habitually committed the crime of riding two on a bike. A cycling copper was therefore potentially an object of fear in our environment. Fortunately the village bobby was overweight and should have been superannuated some years before, but had been kept-at his post for the duration of hostilities. We were thus able to cycle more rapidly, even with two up, than the copper. Provided we re-cycled home up another lane, we could therefore avoid harmful effects. Today, the situation is not so straightforward. The writing on the wall (graffiti) bids us “Help the police, beat yourself up”. It seems the young of today (one assumes the scribes are young) fear that the health effects of coppers could be serious. The same perhaps goes for copper. DAVID J. MOORE
The Physical Environment by B. K. Ridley. Ellis Horwood Series in Environmental Science, Chichester. England 1979. 236 pp. Typeset Hardcover. Price L8.50. The book is intended for students on environmental courses, and of the pure and applied sciences and for general readingschools, colleges, universities and public libraries. It has a subject index and an appendix gives symbols for units, multipliers and values for physical constants and other useful quantities. After the introduction, there are chapters on day and night, earth time, the structure of the earth, the earth’s crust, continental drift, natural forces, the atmosphere, the celestial sphere and origins. There is also a section of problems with answers for each chapter. The book is well illustrated and there is a list of further reading at the end of each chapter, including some original papers. There are three pages on pollution in the chapter on the atmosphere. Looking at energy flow, the atmospheric circulation is credited with lO”MW, but usable power is put at 5 x 1O‘MW. which works out at 1MW for every 10’ km2 of earth’s surface, which seems grossly pessimistic, probably by a factor of 10’. The estimate for tidal basins. 6000 MW. also seems surprisingly low. The reasoning behind this is to arbitrarily limit any surface collection to 0.17; the earth’s surface. At least the figures are there for the reader to draw his own conclusions. The book is written in a readable style and is recommended for the readership for whom it is intended. DAVID J. MOORE
881
Exploration of the Polar Upper Atmosphere. C. S. Deehr End J. A. Holted (Ed). D. Reidel. Dordrecht, 1980. Camera ready format. hard cover xvi + 498. Price SI 10.00. Dvonmics of the Upper Atmosphere, by Susanne Kato, D. Retdel. Dordrecht, 1980. Printed in Japan hard cover xiii 7 233.
The first of these books is a collection of tutorial lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Lillehammer. Sorway. 5-16 May 1980. Of most interest to readers of .-lrmo~phrric Enuironmenr are the papers in part 1. “Middle Atmosphere (tropopause to 100km) Dynamics and Composition” by Marvin A. Geller. which was prepared while the author was on the faculty of the University of Miami (this seems to be a sensible place to study the polar upper atmosphere)and”Wind induced Composition Effectsat High Altitudes” by H. G. Mayer and I. Harris. The remaining papers are mainly concerned with very high altitudes. The second book is a mathematically orientated introduction to the dynamics of the earth’s upper atmosphere, with special emphasis on and tidal waves and their ionospheric effects. Seither book is concerned with man’s influence. It is interesting to note that Silverman and Fenyman conclude their paper on “The Changing Aurora of the Past Three Centuries” with “. the variation of the configuration ofthe magnetosphere during the last three centuries has been much greater than has been observed to date since in si~uspace observations began”. It can only be.a matter of time before the modelling of the effects of surface emissions, which already extends to the lower stratosphere, reaches these levels as well. At the present time it appears that the “natural” phenomena are not fully understood. Such an understanding must precede any attempt to assess the effects of man’s interference at these levels.
DAVID J. MOORE
Wind Effects on Buildings. Vol. I. Design Applications, by T. V. Lawson, Applied Science Publishers, Barking, Essex, U.K.. 1980. Hard cover, typeset, xix + 318 pp. Price-L 22. Hind Effects on Buildines. Vol. 2. Statistics and Meteorology, by T. V. Lawson, Applied Science Publishers, Barking, Essex, U.K., 1980. Hard cover, typeset, x + 158 pp. Price d 12.
The author has been an Associate Editor of Atmospheric Enrironmenr for many years. Readers of the Journal are perhaps, on the whole, more concerned with the effect of buildings on the wind. It is therefore comforting to find some reference to wakes in Volume 1, pp. 137-139 and 88-89 and to interference between buildings pp. 228-230. There is also a short chapter on pollution in the environment of buildings and a longer one on heating and ventilating which is matnly concerned with chimneys. Chapter 13 deals with cooling effects on people. A chapter on wind tunnel investigations includes some discussion of anemometers, but the reader is referred to the literature for details. On the question of whether the whole depth of the boundary layer should be modelled the author states that .‘. the idea that it is only necessary to simulate . the lower quarter to one third of the layer is almost universally followed.‘* The major advantage of this part simulation is that it allows the linear scale of the model to be increased by a factor of about three. Since most modern studies of atmospheric boundary layers appear to scale the longitudinal and lateral turbulence to the boundary layer depth, it is difficult to conceive how a true representation of the real flow can be achieved with only part