MPH Environmental Health Class Notes

1. Water Treatment and Safe Drinking Water10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
Potable: Safe for drinking.
Palatable: Water looks nice and tastes nice.
Palatable doesn’t mean its potable. Palatable can be potable.
Groundwater: less variation, high mineral content, low turbidity, hardness
(mineral content composition), low color, low dissolved organic, constant
composition.
Surface Water: variable composition, low mineral content, low hardness,
high turbidity, color, dissolved organic present, taste and odor variable.
Recharge Area: The deeper the water, the long it takes to travel, can be up
to milleniums.
Agriculture: Number one water consumer.
Salinization: small amount of salt dissolved, especially in dry regions.
Point Source: Source of pollution readily located and identified.
Nonpoint Source: Agricultural runoff, urban runoff. Cannot clearly identify
source of pollutant, because diffuse, hard to control.
Industrial Water Use: usually for cooling (90%). 50% of all water
withdrawal in US. When cooled down, returned back to environment
Hydrolectric Water Generation(Dams): Affects ecosystem upstream.
Destruct natural habitats.
Domestic Water Use: Toilet (29%), bathing (23%), lawns (29%).
Major Sources of Water Contamination: Agricultural, waste plants.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand: amount of oxygen used by
microbiota/animals in water. Microbes dumped into lakes and rivers use up a
lot of oxygen available, and aquatic life dies. Smaller microbiota will survive
more than acquatic fish.
Eutrophication: when nutrients like fertilizer go into body and grow algae
(nitrogen/phosphorous). Boom bust cycle, when die off sink to bottom,
decompose by microbes, use up oxygen, and BOD goes up.
Indicator Species: fecal coliform bacteria live in animal intestines. Good
indicator for any contamination from sewage.
Thermal Pollution: temperature of water body is higher than should be and
is returned to original environment, alters ecosystems.
Clean Water Act 1972: Fishable and swimmable water.
Wastewater Treatment: 1. Remove sand, grit, debris. 2. Remove organic
matter BOD Two types: Centralized vs. Onsite Treatment (rural areas).
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2. Primary Treatment: 1. Bar Screen (removes anything that floats). 2. Grit
Chamber (anything that is heavy,sand, glass) 3. Settling tank (Sludge) 4.
Chlorination Tank (kills bacteria).
Secondary Wastewater Treatment: provides BOD removal beyond what
is achieved in primary treatment. 1. Aeration tank (adds in a lot more
oxygen – enables microbes to grow to dissolve organic matter in the water.
Not drinkable yet.
Available Freshwater: 2.5%, glaciers and ice, groundwater, surface water.
Separate Storm Water from Wastewater: can overflow and overpopulate
the secondary sewage treatment, causing contamination.
Primary Consumer: Herbivores.
Xray: gamma
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3. Atmospheric Pollutants, Regulation, and Human
Health 10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
Sink: place where pollutants disappear from the air and collects.
Scavenging Mechanisms: mechanisms by which pollution is removed from
the atmosphere.
Receptor: something adversely affected by polluted air.
Transport: diffusions.
Measurements: averaging time is extremely important. Data looks
different. Ex: morning and evening rush hours.
Smoke Stack: the higher the smoke stack, the farther it will carry the
contaminate.
Thermal Inversion: when warm air, pollutants produced rise to the top. In
cool air, the pollutants get trapped at the ground air. When city closed by
ocean, cold air comes in and gets trapped under warm air, pollutants
accumulate.
Volcanic Eruptions: contain particulate matter, H2SO, SO2.
Utilities Plants: largest producers of anthropogenic source of atmospheric
pollutants.
Power Plant: if making too much pollution. Cleaner coal, change furnace so
les ash makes it to the stack, efficient pollution processing equipment, all
expensive.
Waste Management: incineration is the cheapest method of waste
reduction, burning landfills (create dioxins when burn plastics).
Primary Pollutants: Straight from the source.
Secondary Pollutants: reactions of primary pollutants create secondary
pollutants.
Acid Rain: Sulfuric Acid, secondary pollutant.
National Ambient Air Quality Standards(NAAQS): Two goals: 1. Protect
Public Health (Primary Standards) 2. Protect anything other than human
(Secondary Standards).
State Implementation Plan: each state figures out how it can implement
their plan to control air pollution.
Six Criteria Pollutants: 1. Sulfur Dioxide 2. Particulate 3. Ozone 4. Carbon
Monoxide 5. Nitrogen Oxides 6. Lead
Nitrogen Oxide: From fuel burned at high temperatures, brownish/reddish
layer, odorless. Pulmonary irritant. Precursor for acid rain. Nitric acid. One of
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4. the precursors to form ozone. Limit emissions for power plants and vehicles:
use different kind of coal, try to reformulate the gasoline for vehicles.
Sulfur Dioxides: pulmonary irritant, acid rain. Power plants that use coal.
Sulfur can also be found in lead, iron. Dissolves in water easily, causes haze,
travels a long distance.
Coal: sulfur is part of it. Different coal from different era have different
sulfur content. Missouri uses Wisconsin coal which is lower in sulfur dioxide.
Ozone: high up in stratosphere good, in trophosphere it is bad. O3 is not
stable, highly reactive, strong oxidizers, if we are breathing it, irritates the
pulmonary system. VOC+NOX+Heat +Sunlight=Ozone. It is a summer
pollutant. Limit VOC, NOx. Reduce emission NOX, VOC. Absorbs UV light.
Oxygen molecules are photolyzed, combine into O- and O3.
VOC: Volatile organic compounds, almost everywhere, industry, exhaust.
Particulate Matter: if smaller, can go deeper into lungs, and if has an
organic compound/chemical attached to it, you may absorb, will become a
toxin. PM 2.5 exposure leads to Cardiovascular Disease.
Control of Particulate matter: remove yourself from exposure. No way to
limit the source, no good way.
CFC: combines with O-, decreases ozone in stratosphere. Main culprit.
Montreal protocol goal is to prevent all use of CFC. Ex: Freon, methane,
Free Radical Catalysts: NO, N20, OH, etc prevent ozone from forning.
Ozone Hole: over antartica, south pole.
UVB: baddest uv ray, ozone layer absorbs it. Has enough energy to break
DNA bonds. Ionizing radiation.
UV Rays on Environment: damage to plant cells, decrease phytoplankton,
more susceptible to pathogens, pests, increases skin cancer.
SPF: Not in linear scale. Up to 50. SPF 15 = 1/15th of harmful uv rays will
reach the skin.
Natural Rain Fall: Slightly acidic, more acidic in the east coast. Correlates
with Mercury, coal power plants.
Acid Rain/Soil: If soil contains a lot of metals, acid rain will react and leach
out and affect environment, go into rivers. Iron: red. Limestone dissolved by
rain. Failure to reproduce, gill damage, egg damage. Prevent by limiting
emissions of NOx, SO2.
Greenhouse Effect: Global temperature is going up. Vector borne disease
up, rainfall change, climate change, glacier down, sea level up.
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5. Glacier: Ice free-water.
Natural Variation: climate becomes warmer by internal chaotic dynamics
of earth.
Greenhouse Effect: increase in gases such as CO2, CH4, NOx, CFC.
CO2, CH4, N20: Linger in environment longer. CO2 is biggest one.
Methane: found in waste, byproduct of anaerobic material, exponentially
rising. Traps heat 20x.
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7. Solid Waste Disposal 10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
Emphasis on convenience resulted in increase of solid waste – TV dinner,
mcdonalds, burger king over past several decades since WWII,
Most waste product: paper products.
Wealthy People/Affluent: Generate most money.
Landfills: Cannot put far away because too expensive and you need tax
payers money to pay for it. Landfills going down because land is needed for
houses, etc., especially in urban areas. Decreases property value. Even
though lined with a plastic liner, trash leaks, to ground water. Similar to a
trash can.
Finding area for landfill: Need right soild composition. Clay vs. sand. Need
an impervious layer. Need pipes. At the very bottom, gets soggy.
Lechate: soggy water at bottom of the landfill generated from waste.
Lechate collection system: removes the leachate water.
Things to avoid in landfill: electronics, toxic chemicals, grass and leaves,
when decompose, produce a lot of gas. Give off methane - try to burn it off.
Compost: for grass and leaves.
Landfill Owners: Responsible for 30 years for it.
Burning: produces CO, particulate matter, fire hazard. Pros: can produce
energy, fast, don’t need as much land. Plastics burned produce dioxins. To
destroy the dioxin, need high temperature, then it is not as cheap.
Source Reduction: reusable bottle, companies decrease boxes. Good for
the company, cheaper.
Recycle: cannot recycle everything. Glass, paper, plastic, aluminum.
Most recyclable material: auto batteries.
Incinerators: release dioxins.
Methane burned off on landfills.
Municipal Solid Waste: normal trash that is thrown away daily.
Sanitary Landfills: Pros: more controlled, liner, lichette collection system,
burn off methane. Cons: Cost, decrease property value, possible
contamination of soil and ground water. Hard to come up with a new landfill
because people don’t want to put it in back yard.
Most important way to control waste: Reduce.
Reducing: less packaging, reusable water bottles.
Recycling: waste reduction. Cons: expensive.
Composting: natural trash that decomposes by bacteria, natural fertilizer.
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8. Incineration: reduce volume of waste, generates electricity, does not
require a large amount of land. Produces dioxins, high cost. If energy not
high enough, produces dioxins.
Landfill gases to worry about: Methane and CO2, greenhouse gasses.
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9. Hazardous Waste 10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
Seven Primary HW Disposal Methods: deep well injection, discharge into
water bodies, ponding, lined dumps covered by soil, underground storage,
specialized sanitary landfills, incineration.
Specialized Sanitary Landfills: two layers of liner, two lieachate collection
systems. Stacked up nicely, rather than dumped.
Deep Well: earthqueake, cracks in the well will leak out hazardous material.
Cradle to Grave Liability: RCRA, new wasteentity that creates a hazardous
waste is morally and financially responsible for that waste until it has been
destroyed.
Three Basic Components of Proper Hazardous Waste Management: 1.
Accurate waste determination. 2. Proper handling/management of waste on
site. 3. Safe transportation and disposal.
Hazardous waste: 1. On the list 2. Or 4 Characteristics: 1. Ignitabillity, 2.
Corrosivity, 3. Reactivity 4. Toxicity.
If neutralize Acid: can toss it down the drain.
Corrosive: ph<2 or >12.5
Limitation of RCRA: does not deal with ph of waste.
Current HW Management Rules for Handling Existing Waste Sites:
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act,
1980 (CERCLA). The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization act, 1986
(SARA). Both are responsible. Old waste. Tries to find responsible parties to
pay for it.
Brownfield: Project that tries to make the area more developed.
RCRA: coverns cradle to grave.
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11. Energy and Sustainability 10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
Coal: biggest source of energy still.
Windmills: wind doesn’t blow all the time, turbines break, noisy, looks bad.
Solar Panels: getting more efficient, not effective in region of not much
sun. More land needed to capture sunlight. Rooftop. Very expensive.
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12. 10/9/2014 6:00:00 PM
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