The role of innovators in the introduction of preventive environmental policy in local government

This article discusses the role of innovators in the introduction of 'preventive environmental' policy in local government in the Netherlands. With the help of the configuration theory of Mintzberg and the innovation theory of Rogers a description is given of making this new prevention policy within the governmental organization. This process of...

Centrifuge modeling of LNAPL transport in partially saturated sand

Model tests were performed at the Geotechnical Centrifuge Facility of Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, to examine the mechanics of light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) movement in a partially saturated porous granular medium. The experiment simulated a 2D spill of LNAPL in an unsaturated sand prepared at two values of porosity....

The impact of atmospheric deposition of non-acidifying substances on the quality of European forest soils and the North Sea

In the pilot study ESQUAD the impact of atmospheric deposition of three heavy metals (cadmium, copper and lead) and two persistent organic pollutants (benzo(a)pyrene and lindane) on the quality of European soils and seawater has been calculated. Calculations have been made of atmospheric transport and deposition using a detailed emissions...

Environmental risk assessment for pesticides in the atmosphere: The results of an international workshop

The Health Council of the Netherlands organised an international workshop on the fate of pesticides in the atmosphere and possible approaches for their regulatory environmental risk assessment. Approximately forty experts discussed what is currently known about the atmospheric fate of pesticides and major gaps in our understanding were...

Transformations of pesticides in the atmosphere: A state of the art

The current knowledge about transformation rates and products of pesticides in the atmosphere is reviewed. Reactive species and their concentrations in the atmosphere are presented. Reactions of pesticides with these species (including photolysis) in the gas and the particulate phase are evaluated from available experimental data. The potential...

Implementing atmospheric fate in regulatory risk assessment of pesticides: (How) can it be done?

Atmospheric fate of pesticides and their possible effects in ecosystems beyond the immediate surrounding of the application site are not actively considered in currently used regulatory, risk assessment schemes. Concern with respect to atmospheric transport and subsequent deposition of pesticides in non-target areas is however growing. In this...

Controlling persistent organic pollutants-what next?

Within the context of current international initiatives on the control of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), an overview is given of the scientific knowledge relating to POP sources, emissions, transport, fate and effects. At the regional scale, improvements in mass balance models for well-characterised POPs are resulting in an ability to...

Dynamic assessment of the ecological risk of the discharge of produced water from oil and gas producing platforms

Since 1991 the North Sea countries (UK, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark) have put a lot of effort in the development of a decision support system for the legislation of the use and discharge of offshore exploration, drilling and production chemicals. The heart of this so-called 'harmonised mandatory control system' is the 'chemical hazard...

Report on the geo-environmental inquiry project, central and eastern Europe

The Commission on Geological Sciences for Environmental Planning (COGEOENVIRONMENT) of IUGS and UNESCO have initiated a joint project to develop a worldwide data base on earthscience-related environmental problems and to assess which geoscientific information is available locally for prevention, prediction or mitigation of such problems. As a...

The aerosol project: Introduction and some background information

This paper provides an introduction to a series of publications in this issue of Atmospheric Environment, all summarising the results of the 'Aerosol project'. The aim of this project was (i) to quantify the contribution of acidifying aerosols to the total acid input in nature areas, (ii) to determine the contribution of aerosol deposition and...

Comprehensive neurotoxicity assessment

Significant progress has been made in recent years in terms of both the conceptualization of neurotoxicity assessment strategies as well as in the development of behavioral techniques for evaluating neurotoxic exposures. A tiered approach, for example, has been advocated as an assessment strategy in which testing would proceed in a stepwise...