Environmental-Health Books

HealthIssueBooks.com-->Emerging-Infectious-Diseases-->Environmental-Health-->36
Related Subjects:
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250

Environmental-Health Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Environmental Health: From Global to Local (Public Health/Environmental Health)

Published in Hardcover by Jossey-Bass (2005-08-31)

Author:

List price: $90.00

New price: $64.70
Used price: $61.65

Average review score:

Good survey text

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-27

With chapters ranging from 20-60 pages and a judicious use of figures and photographs, each section provides an appropriate amount of material for an overview of the topic presented. I would recommend this text as an excellent starting point for further investigations into EOH.

I got it for school.

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-03

This was a good book but I received it somewhat late from amazon.

Great overall reference!

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-29

I was required to buy this as a textbook for a class that I am taking, but I am glad I bought it. It is an easy read and a well-rounded reference for a gamut of environmental health issues and topics. I would recommend this as a textbook for the beginning environmental scientist to build upon as well as a good reference book for the occasional environmentalist.

Environmental Pollution and Control

Published in Paperback by Butterworth-Heinemann (1990-10)

Authors: P. Aarne Vesilind, J. Jeffrey Peirce, and Ruth F. Weiner

List price: $39.95

New price: $24.95
Used price: $2.91

Average review score:

Good Balance

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-14

I continue to use this book as a practical and teaching resource. It is a good balance between the science and engineering aspects of environmental quality. The examples and problems are understandable for most undergraduates, and can be adapted to be more quantitative, if needed.

Complete, accurate and clear

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-02

I used this book as base for teaching of Environmental Technologies at university. It is really good, easy to follow and addresses the main aspects of environmental pollution control. The only aspect that it does not cover is soil pollution. One strong point: the figures, graphs, exercises are very good!

Excellent introduction to environmental pollution issues

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-21

This was a text book for my Environmental Security class. I learned a heckuva lot, and I really enjoyed reading it, too. It's well organized and helps you understand some technical issues relating to the environment without going over the non-technical major's head. The study/homework questions at the end of each chapter weren't too difficult and helped a lot in learning the material.

Haunted Housing: How Toxic Scare Stories are Spooking the Public Out of House and Home

Published in Paperback by Cato Institute (1997-01-25)

Author: Cassandra Chrones Moore

List price: $11.95

New price: $6.99
Used price: $1.29

Average review score:

Just a thought.

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-29

"Why didn't our grandparents and parents fall over dead from all these hazards?"

Our grandparents didnt have to cope with all the chemicals we have today! They didnt get allergic, 1/3 of all americans are allergic today. In my book that is due to poison coming from products we have in our homes, combined with not enough ventilation.

If you wrap the house in plastic and use buildingmaterial of formaldehyde inside it, whats going to happen? Myself I got allergic just a few years after moving into such a house, built 1974. Nowadays there are many more toxic stuff to breath in.

Required reading for homeowners, Realtors and legislators

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-13

This is an exceptional book with obviously good scholarship and scientific reviewers and information drawn from primary sources. Although it began with well-intentioned concern, the "asbestos hazard" became one of the most costly mistakes of the 20th Century, and it continues to cause damage through exploitation of fear. There are few better examples of the costs incurred through making sweeping regulation based on political activism rather than on science. "Radon" promises to become an issue cast in the same manner. This book furnishes a case study on the larger issue of why a government agency charged with regulation incurs a conflict of interest that prevents its doing objective research about seriousness of a hazard-the more fear raised over a potential hazard, the more important and influential a regulatory agency becomes. Where influence and funding depend on fear, research that discloses fear as largely unfounded is invariably unwelcome. As result, government has little interest in providing the public with facts or solid information that reveals severe misjudgments and expensive mistakes. One has to dig through the primary science literature to deduce this--a chore few can or are inclined to do. Moore's book documents mistakes of enormous magnitude that negatively impact homeowners. It gathers enough primary information in readable form to show how it occurred and the vehemence with which it is perpetuated. Critical thinkers will love this book; those who thrive on promoting baseless fear will hate it.

This should be a best seller, for every home needs a copy!

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-29

For the last 20 years, I've rehabbed old houses and loved the work. I've always wondered about the EPA's wild statements regarding HOW UNSAFE old houses are. Why didn't our grandparents and parents fall over dead from all these hazards?

While writing an article about radon in the home, I discovered Casandra Moore and her book and even had a chance to interview her. I was so impressed with her, I came right to Amazon.com and bought her book. **It is one of the finest books in print.** Period.

She speaks the truth about these hazards in our home and each statement is substantiated and supported.

It is a very interesting read and a very reassuring read. No, our grandparents and parents did *NOT* fall over dead from the hazards in these old houses and there's a reason they did not!

Too often, the so-called hazards are completely overstated and blown out of all proportion by a massive governmental bureaucracy's creative imagination or a misplaced hope to save us from ourselves.

Moore's book reveals that lead levels [measured by blood lead levels] have fallen from 60 micrograms in 1970 to about 10 micrograms in 1990. That is a significant decrease.

She also reveals that the US Public Health Service keeps lowering the bar. Three times in 15 years, they've decreased the *safe* number for blood lead levels, which makes the numbers or percentages of children at risk APPEAR to jump way up. Makes for hot headlines, but bad information.

Her book is stuffed full of this kind of information. Very very interesting.

This is a good read, an interesting topic, an important book and a wonderful resource. I'd recommend it as a *must read* for anyone who lives in a pre-1970 built house.

TO conclude, Moore has good news to share. The EPA is not the final word on on our health and well being. We are indeed, "safe at home."

Rose

Healing Environmental Illness From Within

Published in Paperback by Trafford Publishing (2006-07-17)

Author: Marcia Murphy

List price: $15.50

New price: $15.50
Used price: $11.25

Average review score:

An excellent and inspiring account of a good recovery from environmental illness

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-09

HEALING ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS FROM WITHIN by Marcia Murphy is a very intense personal account of a woman's struggle with chronic illhealth for several years and her understanding the root causes of her illness. Written in excellent style, the book holds the interest of the reader from beginning to end.

Marcia Murphy opens up her heart, mind and soul in the book. She takes us on a very intense private journey and shows us how she discovered, the role of mind over body. What was diagnosed as electromagnetic poisoning, and chemical sensitivity, she found had much deeper roots, of fears, of resentments and of lack of self-love. She describes beautifully how her Higher Self helped her in the process of discovering these aspects through some wonderfully mystical events.

And Marcia describes how the Option Institute helped her recover from serious illhealth and how she is now able to help others similarly placed.

The book is short and sweet, just 118 pages. The same Spirit which helped Marcia learn about her body, mind and soul, also motivated her to write such a moving, intensely interesting tale of learning, learning some deep lessons, from the book of life.

I have no hesitation to recommend the book as a Must Read for all those involved in health, that is all of us.

This book gave me HOPE!!

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-29

I was fairly new to Environmental Illness and living in constant fear when I discovered this book. It was a ray of hope to me in a desperate time! I was familiar with the idea of the mind-body connection, but this was the first book I read that applied it to E.I.

It was so refreshing for me to read the story of an ordinary woman who overcame her demons (and admitted to doing so imperfectly) instead of being preached to by some mind-body guru who never actually experienced the illness. The author is just an average person sharing her experience. I related to just about all of the fears and emotional issues she described, and my copy of this book quickly became marked up with underlines and asteriks! I felt as though the book were written just for me.

Marcia Murphy is an inspiration; this book is a must read!

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-27

Healing Environmental Illness From Within is an account of Marcia Murphy's challenge with chronic illness. By mustering great courage, insight and personal resourcefulness, she has achieved genuine healing form some of the most difficult illnesses one might encounter. She explores the choices we make in relation to chronic illness and how they affect our immune systems. I think anyone who is dealing with illness would learn much from this approach. She puts hope and healing within grasp

The Healthy House: How to buy one, How to build one, How to cure a sick one

Published in Paperback by Healthy House Inst (1997)

Author: John Bower

List price: $23.95

Used price: $1.46

Average review score:

A classic. A must for for any library on healthy homes

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-18

John Bower is one of the original pioneers in writing books about how to make your home healthy. This is the classic text that describes what might be unhealthy in a home and provides specific suggestions for alternatives. Lots of product information, i.e, where to order alternative building materials, less toxic-paint, safe insulation, etc.

Dan Stih is the author of Healthy Living Spaces: Top 10 Hazards Affecting Your Health

Lots of good info on Indoor Air Quality

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-13

If you are concerned about indoor air quality, this is a good read. However, it left me a little paranoid. There are so many air contaminates listed in the book, it's hard to know how to improve your home. In the book itself it states that people have often replaced items in their home contributing to poor indoor air quality, only to find the replacement item was more toxic than the former item.

If you are building a home, read this first. If you already have a home.... this book will leave you wondering how to improve your life without spending your retirement fund.

Lots of good information in this book.

Good Book

Helpful Votes: 14 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 2001-09-09

When this book came out, it was the best primer on Healthy Homes/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It is easy to read and covers most of the important stuff. John Bower has learned by doing.

He is one of the better authors covering home ventilation. On the down side, there are some vague referances not backed up with objective data.

All in all, well worth the money.

Poisoned Nation: Pollution, Greed, and the Rise of Deadly Epidemics

Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (2007-08-21)

Author: Loretta Schwartz-Nobel

List price: $24.95

New price: $4.79
Used price: $4.58

Average review score:

A must-read for every American

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-29

What an incredible book. This is a must-read for every American. The chapter on how Camp Lejeune, a military base in North Carolina, poisoned the water around it, is heartbreaking. The chapter on mercury in childrens' vaccines and how it was hushed up, is very revealing. Again, don't miss reading this book; it'll wake you up to the reality of how large companies have poisoned us, and in many cases continue to poison us and pay huge campaign contributions (did I hear someone say bribes?) to politicians to keep quiet.

I hope this book gets the attention it deserves!

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-19

The previous reviewer did an excellent job of reviewing the book. As the mother of a child with autism, this is the first book I've found that pulls together the most important facts about the mercury/autism connection and the truth about vaccines that has been covered up to avoid a nationwide panic. As the author points out, shockingly, despite the known toxicity of mercury in the entire population, but especially the very young and the very old, the CDC is once again recommending flu shots for pregnant women and children and elders (at risk for Altzheimer's)WITHOUT making the distinction about those that contain thirmerosal (mercury) and those that do not. It is absolutely outreageous. Because I found her investigative reporting on this issue so accurate, I trust the equally disturbing information she reports on the nation's water supply and our losing battle with breast cancer and how corporate profit/government cost-saving/budget cuts trump safety, again and again and again.
I hope this book gets the attention it deserves and we see the author on Oprah, NPR, Bill Moyers, etc. She has done the nation a great service...too late for many who have buried their children and are struggling with pollution-caused illness, but it is never too late to do the right thing. Please read/share this book with others.

Focuses on the personal profiles of victims of environmental pollutants

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-26

This slim book will probably be found in the "Health and Family" sections of bookstores, which traditionally cater to women readers, as well as perhaps the "Science and Technology" section of the store. The focus in Nobel's book is less on the scientific or technical aspects of environmental pollutants (such as, for example, Devra Davis's book "When Smoke Ran Like Water"). Rather, "Poisoned Nation" emphasizes the travails of people who have seen themselves or family members stricken with chronic diseases as a result of exposure to pollutants.

The initial chapter of the book deals with the role of trichloroethylene and other organic solvents in triggering leukemia clusters in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; and perchlorate contamination of water in California communities and the spectrum of illnesses observed in the exposed populations. Successive chapters deal with perchlorate in foods; mercury as an airborne pollutant, and its role in the association between vaccinations and autism; and breast cancer in US women and the role of toxic compounds in the environment, and mammography-derived radiation, in causing this disease.

There are a number of vignettes in the book that personalize the victims, who too often tend to be represented as abstract 'cases' and 'controls' in the studies conducted by toxicologists and epidemiologists. It's hard to be unmoved when hearing the wrenching personal stories of those who suffer from cancers, developmental disorders, and other chronic diseases due to exposure to contaminants. Nobel is scathing in her condemnation of the corporations, and their political allies, who may be involved in causing these diseases as a result of the irresponsible deposition of toxics in water, air, and foods.

Where the book tends to weaken is in the last chapter, where Nobel broaches the idea that the involvement of religious organizations and activists will motivate federal authorities and corporate executives to strengthen regulatory measures. There is a note of wishful thinking here. Anyone who monitors the www.regulations.gov website, and reads the Public Comments on all the environmental health and safety regulations being put forth from agencies such as the EPA, FDA, and USDA, will realize that the political appointees who set policy at the highest levels of these agencies regularly ignore public and scientific opinion. Indeed, the primary goal of these appointees is to satisfy the desires of the lobbies that promoted their appointments in the first place; public opinion and the cautionary remarks of scientists are almost flippantly disregarded. The fact remains that litigation has always driven environmental reform in the US, and for good or ill represents the most effective vehicle for ensuring the safety of vaccines, the regulation of pollutants, and the financial liability of polluters.

Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing The Precautionary Principle

Published in Paperback by Island Press (1999-06-01)

Author:

List price: $55.00

New price: $49.97
Used price: $11.00

Average review score:

Ambitious and full of food for thought

Helpful Votes: 14 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-01

"Protecting Human Health and the Environment" discusses what is involved in coming up with a meaningful, workable definition of the "precautionary principle." It also talks about how this principle (which comes down to the "First, do no harm" of Hippocrates) can be given effect in environmental policy, law, and specific problems. The book is a collection of articles that were first presented at the Wingspread Conference in 1998. This variety of voices and perspectives is one of the real strengths of the book: the precautionary principle is a huge idea that involves some fundamental shifts in American thinking about science, nature, and environmental protection; and this is the first book I've read which really manages to convey that. Those who think that the "precautionary principle" is another enviro plot to co-opt American policy and advance unfounded, neo-Luddite agendas really need to read this book. It is rich in thought-provoking ideas, backed up by meticulous review of existing policy, law, and science -- powerful without being dogmatic, sincere without being cloying. And those who grasp the severity of the threats to sustainability facing human society should find a deeply coherent, beautifully articulate means of responding to these threats. Unlike many of the sweeping solutions advance over the years to the human inability to moderate its behavior for the good of the whole, implementation of the precautionary principle actually seems possible! Indeed, it is already being pursued. Let's hope that lots of courageous and energetic folks get their hands on this one.

A neutral guideline to understand the principle

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-02-28

The book has indicated the underlying theory, substantial framework for the implementation of the pinciple, and the practice of the p.p. in international society. Overall, most articles have done good job in describing their appraisal of the principle. I strongly recommend the book because of those authors' enthusiasms in advocating the application of the precautionary principle to address the scientific uncertainty. Even some of the articles cite insufficient information to support their points.

On Target but Fragmented--Needs New Edition with Summary

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-02

This is the second best of several books on environmental policy I have reviewed, and it merits careful scrutiny in part because it brings together a number of expert authors and there is in essence "something for everyone" in this edited work. What is lacks, though, is a good summary chapter that lists how the "precautionary principle" should be applied across each of the top ten environmental areas of concern--something that could circulate more easily than the book, and perhaps have a beneficial policy impact at the local, state, and national levels--and I suggest this because the meat of the book is good, it needs an executive summary.

The chapter that was most meaningful to me, the one that I think needs to be migrated into business education, international affairs education, science & technology policy education, is by Gordon K. Durnil, Chapter 16, and it deal with "How Much Information Do We Need Before Exercising Precaution." This is a brilliant piece of work that dissects our current environmental policy information collection, processing, and analysis system, and finds it very deceptive, disingenuous, and consequently seriously flawed.

For the best on the environment, read "Pandora's Poison". For the best on public health, read "Betrayal of Trust." For a very fine cross-over book that has good chapters from various good people, this is the book to buy and enjoy.

Risk Communication: A Handbook for Communicating Environmental, Safety, and Health Risks

Published in Paperback by Wiley-IEEE Press (2008-07-28)

Authors: Regina Lundgren and Andrea McMakin

List price: $54.95

New price: $54.95

Average review score:

very detailed book on risk communication

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-18

This is a good book for learning about the details of risk communications. It is quite detailed and systematic.

No Risk in Buying THIS Book!

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-20

No Risk In Buying This Book!

I've been in the Environmental Risk Communication (RC) field for ten years, medicine for thirty. Often I've wished there was a text or overview of RC that was readable by professional and layperson alike. Little did I know: Regina Lundgren and Andrea McMakin have accomplished this, and the results are a resounding "Wow!" In the Third Edition of "Risk Communication, A Handbook for Communicating Environmental, Safety, and Health Risks" (Regina started with the first one; Andrea joined in for the latter two), they present an orderly, comprehensive, understandable, well-referenced, indexed, annotated and glossaried RC bible for anyone just launching into or well-ensconced in the field.

I've often said that RC can be used not only in the "classic" situations (nicely defined alliteratively in this book as "care, crisis and consensus"), but also in one-on-one domestic and professional settings. This book presents information and advice useful to and usable by just about any reader, as one would expect from a work by two communicators. There are numerous examples, case studies, tables, graphs, charts and margin key points (noted with a diamond) that go along with the very readable text (written at the appropriate level, of course). One moves from cover to cover with the ease of reading a novel, the steps to well-executed RC clearly and comprehensively (yet with remarkable simplicity) delineated. There is a start, a middle and an ending, and one feels as though the next natural step is to go out and try the recipe immediately. (I would not suggest, however, that this is a cookbook, only that it reads as easily and the results could be rewarding.)

I suspect many have and many more will hone their skills as this fine work becomes more familiar to those in the rapidly growing, essential and dynamic field of Risk Communication. There is "no risk in buying this book!" I highly recommend it and urge it on anyone who has dealt or will deal with environmental, safety and health "wicked problems" involving concerned stakeholders. That sigh of relief you hear is you, as you find solutions to---or at least direction toward---the challenges you face.

Essential handbook for those communicating risks

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-31

Straightforward and well-designed, this 400+ page book tells you how to explain risks to your workers, your stakeholders, and the public effectively. This book gives you the information you need to understand, plan, start, finish, and evaluate your plan to communicate environmental, safety, or health risks.

This guide, which is based on extensive research in the field, is filled with clear visuals and valuable checklists. The examples pulled from the authors' experiences reinforce the messages, often with a touch of humor and grace. For example, never give a presentation during moose hunting season.

A new chapter devoted to communicating in emergenices, such as bioterrorist attacks, provides valuable research and guidelines for building the infrastructure you need NOW, before the emergency, as well as what to do during and after the emergency.

If your job involves communicating risks, you'll want to read this book.

Science Under Siege: How the Environmental Misinformation Campaign Is Affecting Our Lives

Published in Paperback by William Morrow & Co (1996-06)

Author: Michael Fumento

List price: $16.00

New price: $30.99
Used price: $1.90

Average review score:

Important information that everyone should consider.

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1998-07-22

This book contains both a framework for considering risk as well as a number of individual lessons on specific topics. The topics include: alar, animal testing, dioxin, agent orange, food irradiation, electronic and magnetic fields, VDTs and the use of gasohol. He has important chapters that should be read by everyone concerning epidemiology, risk taking, logical arguments, and one on the "besiegers" or the institutional providers of information with their specific motivations. It is a worthy read for anyone interested in risk, environmental affairs, or even the nature of modern discussions concerning any technical issues.

Best Myth Buster in Years!

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-22

Michael Fumento is one of the best myth busters in the business. I find that you can usually judge how effective a writer is by how much virulent hate mail he receives. Fumento publishes his hate mail on his web site (www.fumento.com) and answers it with wit and dripping sarcasm.

For years, for instance, we've heard about how dioxin has allegedly killed {scores, hundreds, thousands, millions ... you pick a value} of people or caused unbelievable sickness and deformity. Vietnam Vets were supposed to be among the worst affected. Now I find out that Vets exposed to Agent Orange were no sicker than those who were not. To make matters worse, the leaders of a comprehensive CDC study that proved this were pilloried by politicians out to make a name for themselves! The press did little to help.

Why do people accept the anecdotal evidence provided by people who think substance X or Y made them sick, but ignore the well done epidemiological studies that show that it is not possible to blame X and Y for the disease? How is it that a private citizen with no training is to be believed over those who study such illnesses in detail? It makes a good story, that's why. It sells newspapers and generates great pictures.

If you can read Fumento's book and not get madder than Hell at all the ... "science" that's out there these days, you're brain dead or you're a tort lawyer who's watching his gravy train about to derail.

Fumento scores a hit by debunking popular hazard myths..

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1997-11-24

Absolutely outstanding! Mr. Fumento debunks popular urban legends regarding the "hazards" of Agent Orange, Dioxin, Alar, Electromagnetic Fields , and Video Display Terminals. At the same time, he adds a brilliant wit and sense of humor which makes this an exciting and engrossing read for anyone who is tired of being told that they are being killed off from modern technology. A Must Read!!!

TMI 25 Years Later: The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Accident and Its Impact

Published in Hardcover by Pennsylvania State University Press (2004-03)

Authors: Bonnie A. Osif, Anthony J. Baratta, and Thomas W. Conkling

List price: $38.00

New price: $27.87
Used price: $42.00

Average review score:

20 minutes from a complete core melt down.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-14

1. The main feedwater system that supplies water to the steam generator malfunctioned and shutoff flow. "Water must be fed continually to the steam generators to make up for the flow of steam from the steam generators to the turbine.

2. Maintenance was being performed on the condensate polishing system. The polishing system is used to purify water in the feedwater system.

3. Alarms went off. An auxiliary feedwater system should have started automatically but it did not. The auxiliary system was to provide emergency source of cooling water to the steam generators, however, critical valves in the system were left closed. Without this critical water supply, the boiling water in the steam generators would boil away completely. A rapid rise in temperature and pressure occurred in the reactor's cooling system.

4. The turbine shutdown automatically.

5. Within seconds, the reactors control system shut down the reactor by dropping the control rods which insulate the neutrons generated from the U235 from striking other U235 atoms in adjacent fuel rods. The fission process stopped.

6. As temperatures and pressures rose water flowed into the pressurizer. The pressurizer is normal half full providing a cushion for expansion from the reactor. A power-operated relief valve also help control pressure during abnormal events.

7. A pressure-regulating valve opened to reduce pressure in the reactor and associated reactor systems.

8. Steam began flowing from the valve through piping into a collecting tank in the basement of the reactor containment building. The water was containinated with radioactive material. The flow caused the pressure to decrease.

9. The pressure regulating valve should have closed but it didn't. The operators had no way of monitoring the valve and therefore did not know it remained open.

10. Vital cooling water was flowing from the reactor out through the valve to the basement collecting tank. The tank overflowed spilling water on the basement floor and was pumped to storage tan in the adjacent building outside the containment building.

11. The emergency core cooling system started automatically.

12. The water level and volume in the reactor system was not measured directly. The operators relied on a measurement of the water level in the system's pressurizer. The operators thought there was adequate water inventory in the primary cooling system. Fearing the system might go solid (rupture from the reactor being 100 filled with water), they turned off the emergency core cooling system.

13. Pressure dropped from the escaping core water. By 5:30 am, the pressures had dropped so low that the large reactor coolant pumps used to circulate the water through the reactor and primary system began to vibrate.

14. The operators began shutting down the pumps to reduce damage.

15. Water began pouring onto the floor of the auxiliary building and radioactive gases found their way from the cooling water through the auxiliary building ventilation system to the outside world.

16. Despite the shutdown of the fission process at the beginning of the accident, energy was still being released in the fuel by the decay of the fission products generated during the operation of the reactor.

17. The rods eventual burst and melted, releasing large quantities of radioactivity into the cooling system.

18. When the fuel overheats the result is rapid oxidation of the zirconium alloy from which the fuel rods tubes are made. The process releases hydrogen. A hydrogen pocket formed at the top of the reactor, but did not ignite.

19. Radioactive gases normally contained in the rods were released into the cooling system, through the stuck valve, and to the reactor building. High radiation alarms began to sound. Radiation alarms began to sound at many points throughout the plant.

20. 6:22 am, the operators realized the power-operated relief valve was stuck open.

21. 6:55 am, a site emergency had been declared.

22. 9:00 am , TMI personnel discover water in the auxiliary building and stop the pumping from the containment building.

23. While operators were restoring the cooling system, the relief valve continued to release hydrogen into the containment-building atmosphere. The hydrogen combined with the oxygen and this mixture ignited. The building did not breach under the pressure of the igniting hydrogen.

24. The reactor system was cooled to a point where the reactor coolant pumps could be turned on and the normal process of heat removal resumed.

The Best Overview Of The Long-Term Effects Of TMI

Helpful Votes: 10 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-13

I have read extensively on the Three Mile Island accident and believe that this book is probably the best introduction to the accident I have yet seen. The book is accurate and is scrupulously unbiased, which is a rarity in any book dealing with nuclear power. The first 32 pages of the book provide the best and most concise general overview of the accident I have read, and anyone wanting to understand the accident should start here.

The book is accessible to non-specialists, but does not make inaccurate generalizations simply for ease of explanation. There is information presented on the basic concepts of nuclear energy, which makes the book extremely valuable to someone just beginning to read on the issue. More knowledgeable readers, industry professionals, and policymakers benefit from this book as well, as it has chapters on the health effects of the accident (including recent data on ongoing longitudinal studies), environmental effects of the accident, policy effects of the accidents, and perhaps most usefully, excellent appendices which include a useful glossary, an accident timeline, and a list of common misconceptions about the TMI accident.

The authors have done an admirable job of writing a book that is useful to both professionals and the general public. It is extremely well documented, non-political, unbiased, and scrupulously accurate. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in nuclear power.

Excellent Information In An Easy-To-Read Format

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-03

"Objective knowledge will help provide guidance for the decisions that will need to be made as we go forward into the next quarter-century." So ends the book TMI 25 Years Later, an objective, inclusive compilation of information regarding the March 28, 1979 Loss-of-Coolant Accident in Reactor 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant near Middletown, PA.
The book, written by three Penn State University staffers, offers a balanced, condensed history of the events of the accident and the years of follow-up that have occurred. Sections cover all aspects of the accident, including rather extensive review and analysis of the role played by the media in the event. Other topics covered include short- and long-term physical and psychological health effects, industry regulatory and financial impacts, and environmental consequences, along with current and future power requirements in the United States and the options for meeting those requirements.
In order to properly understand exactly what caused the accident and what it's effects meant to the local population, a rudimentary understanding of nuclear processes and power generation are needed. Complex nuclear concepts are presented in an illustrated, easy-to-understand manner, and an in-depth minute-by-minute timeline of the accident is presented along with causes, effects, and notes that only the luxury of extensive investigation and hind-sight can provide.
An excellent book for anyone interested in nuclear power generation, the TMI accident or the local populace of the plant, TMI 25 Years Later provides condensed information in an easy-to-read format. The information is not watered down (the book is well cited), but instead provided in a format that allows anyone to understand what happened on that fateful Wednesday morning, and more importantly what it means to our future.