Environmental-Health Books

I went to serveral book stores looking for the book I needed - to no avail. I came home and looked through the phone book to obtain book stores who might have the book I needed - to no avail. I went on line to Amazon.com and what to my wondering eyes - the book I needed. I received it in two day's time and lived happily ever after. Thank you Amazon!

This story details how people suffer and die from the repressive labor practices of pesticide-addicted agribusiness. It should give pause to people eating foods produced and harvested in places whose labor practices are known to be repressive. It should spur support for "fairly-traded" foods and also should spur investigations into the activities of agribusinesses using pesticides but probably won't because the power these corporations have over people and political systems continues to increase.

This should be considered essential reading for anyone working in the areas of public health and occupational health. It is a modern but 'classic' occupational health story, which illustrates again, that when workers are repressed, forced by economic circumstances to accept their working conditions as their employers dictate, significant health problems follow.

And the long screw of history keeps on turning...

Eckhoff's book is organized in an efficient manner, the first chapter providing an excellent overall tutorial on the general subject of dust explosions and subsequent chapters providing optional reading material for those desiring a more in-depth treatment of individual topics in the field. The text is extremely readable and Eckhoff has gone to great lengths to make the subject matter understandable and informative to laypersons and experts alike. This book should serve well as the foundation reference on the subject of dust explosions in the library of the process safety professional or persons involved in dry-end manufacturing operations

Dr. Eckhoff has amassed the most comprehensive overview of the subject ever developed. He reports on the research and findings of many other scientists and in so doing provides a forum and a resource. This book is a one stop reference for information on the causes, effects and alternatives available for dealing with this complex phenomenon. The 2nd edition includes a new chpater 8, which is a review of new research and findings that came out since the original publication. This helps keep the book up to date, but the basics are the same in both the 1st and 2nd editions.

Highly recommended.

This is a concise and brilliant book! Basu is a leader in forensics and has written a masterpiece. This is a "must read" for the serious electronic microscopist.

'Elecron Microscopy in Forensic, Occupational, and EHS' is concise and intriguing. Dr. Basu is an accomplished and knowledgeable scientist; I recommend this book fully

I read the book a few years ago and was shocked at the lack of concern for this information in our daily lives. It is clear that we are all linked to electromagnetic fields and waves be it a hair dryer, an electric shaver, an electrical generator or a pencil sharpener. Yet it appears that few of us are actually armed with the knowledge of the "concerns" over the damaging issues with regards to our bodies, both young and old. I let my original copy slip through my hands, thank you Amazon.com for being an outlet to a great, but what I believe is a suppressed issue. I will be buying several for family and friends.

Sincerely,

I read this book years ago and could not find it ANYWHERE, despite a pretty dedicated search. No doubt, it is a hotly debated topic, much like the cell-phone emmissions issue. This is a must read for anyone who is trying to assume responsibility in their lives, the lives of their children or simply planning properly for a safe future. Many people avoid this type of "fact-based" study - it's a pain/pleasure thing. We gravitate to items that cause us pleasure and avoid things that could cause us pain. Reading this is not painful, it is very enlightening. Avoiding it could prove deadly - but heh, that's what we have health insurance for right? Kudos Amazon.

I found this book to be an excellent review of the field of environmental health and safety. It is balanced between the sometimes separate fields of environmental health and occupational health and safety. The book manages to cover both areas very well. Of the books I have read and used, this is probably the best combined coverage of the entire ES&H field. A wealth of helpful examples are included so the reader can adapt them for their own needs. Definitely a worthwhile book for professionals and students dealing with these issues to own.

"Healing the planet is dependent on each and every one of us first healing our personal living spaces. This book offers a detailed roadmap." --Organic Consumers Association
I worry that the products in my home may be detrimental to my health. I worry that the waste our consumer society generates is degrading the environment. So I was glad to see a guide like Essentual Environments which points out simple changes we can make to have healthier homes. For instance, stop using scented candles and drinking sodas. Replace your laundry detergent with a biodegradable, non-toxic, laundry detergent. Get a filter for your shower since chemicals in the water get absorbed through your skin.
There are more involved recommendations as well for those willing to invest in improving the health of their living spaces. We owe it to ourselves and to the earth to cut down on clutter, chemicals and waste.

This book is absolutely amazing, and the title could not be more appropriate. This book is filled with practical and useful advice on how to bring your life into balance, and avoid those things that we all think we need, but really make us worse off. You might think that using these strategies your life would be more complicated or difficult, in exchange for living healthier, but instead, you are likely to enjoy your life more while living longer! This book is simply amazing.

I don't know of any other international medical reference that incorporates an appreciation for the broad impacts of geology on health like this title. Yes, there are obscure GEOCHEMISTRY AND HEALTH volumes available, but they don't compare with the useful variety of chapters present here. Even at the local jurisdiction where I'm employed, the chapters on radon, fluoride in natural waters, water hardness, soil-borne pathogens, epidemiology, groundwater modelling, and toxicology are handy refreshers.
There's a great deal here and a good portion is geared toward the needs of third world practitioners (iodine deficiencies, geophagy, elements in nutrition, arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, volcanic emissions, etc)

The map of radon risks in the Czech Republic was of particular interest (for my relatives as well). See also what aerosolic mineral dusts are doing to the Chinese population in chapter 18.

Another plug for geography:
While rightfully geographic, not geologic techniques, the editors include remote sensing techniques and GIS mapping for vector borne diseaes, but these spatial/graphic techniques will continue to grow in importance for other issues in medical geology.

There is nothing else that compares to this concise introduction to the subject. I have no doubt it will help to increase your awareness of the importance of the interaction of mammalian systems with our natural environment. Highly accessible and nicely illustrated -- it is evident that a team of dedicated medics and geoscientists invested long nights editing and minimizing jargon. For this the world should be thankful! This 800+ page full-color tome highlights some of the significant interfaces of medicine and earth science. Most of the topics are fascinating, such as Skinner's review of the 'Mineralogy of Bone'. If you forgot what geophagy is, look no further than Peter Abrahams chapter. So finally there is an accessible primer for medical schools, I might predict that several institutions will begin using Selinus for courses in medical geology. The book's organization has laid a nice foundation for this emerging transdisciplinary study. The seven editors and some 50 contributors should be congratulated for sharing a common vision to its fruition. At 12 cents a page, I love it!!!!

FYI - Lastly, you should be aware that there is another book published by L-severe that has the title 'Medical Geology' (by Komatina). It is not worth a nickel and should be recycled, as it was poorly translated and largely ambiguous and full of errors. The translator should be taken out to the back and shot.

Claudia Wild's book is an indispensable guide to all of the best birding sites within a 200 mile radius of Washington, DC. It is a "must buy" for birders of all skill levels if you visit or live in DC, Maryland, or Virginia. She also covers Delaware, Cape May, NJ, and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Her directions are easy to follow and her writing style will make you want to read about favorite birding areas again and again. Most important, this book will make it easy to find target birding species (in the appropriate season). This book is a solid 5 stars !!!

Claudia Wilds has done a wonderful job of presenting lots places, including little nooks and crannies to find birds in the greater D.C. area. Directions to locations are detailed and generally accurate, with lots of helpful information.

Well written, and easy to understand. A wonderful guide for exploring the world of birds.

This is one of those books that captures the essentials, to a usable level of depth, for a particular subject- that leads to it becoming a "working book" rather than a "shelf book".

I've personally used this book and it's predecessor, to develop day training courses in ergonomics for industry & financial services sectors. Also, as reference for office, workplace & VDU "quick win" change projects.

The contents span: muscular work, nervous control of movements, improving work efficiency, body size, design of workstations, heavy work, handling loads, skilled work, human-machine systems, mental activity, fatigue, occupational stress, boredom, job design to avoid monotonous tasks, working hours and eating habits, night work and shift work, vision, ergonomic principles of lighting, noise and vibration, indoor climate, daylight, colours, and music for a pleasant work environment.

Key strengths are the attractive style & use of charts/illustrations, comprehensive supported content, solid biological/physiological science, and sheer usefulness of the material to make small or large improvments in the workplace. This is a very worthwhile purchase for any manager, consultant or student interested in enhancing productivity whilst taking a "human-centred" approach. Recommended highly.

This is an excellent introductory review of ergonomics, written by two of the recognised top authorities in this field of study. It is a strongly recommended starting point for students seeking to orientate themselves in ergonomic science.

No matter where you stand on the GE technology, this book offers challenges. Lay readers of Genetically Engineered Organisms should be prepared to tackle technical language and ideas. But the greater challenge is the authors' exciting analysis, which upsets the belief that there are easy answers in the GE debate.

Even without completely grasping the science, the readers gets a front row seat on the issue's full-blown complexity. Perhaps more importantly, the authors show just how much work there is left to do to understand the full implications of GE technology. Genes, it seems, can misbehave in ways that most people have never imagined.

The deliberate alteration of the genomes of many different organisms, called genetic engineering, is now commonplace, and there is every indication that this will increase dramatically in years to come. Most of this will occur due to pressures to find new drugs, with pharmaceutical companies footing the bill for most of the research and practice of genetic engineering. But the use of genetic engineering to obtain pharmaceuticals is only one strategy for the alleviation of human diseases and maladies. Another is to change the genomes of certain organisms and release them into the wild, with the hope that they will interact with their wild-type cousins that are deleterious to human health and neutralize them to a large extent.

This is an exciting strategy, and of course raises concerns as to its efficacy and its safety. This book is a collection of articles that addresses both the technology of genetic engineering and the safety concerns, and can be read by those who like this reviewer, are not experts in genetics or molecular biology but who are very interested in the subject matter. Everything about genetic engineering is fascinating, but one must temper ones fascination with sound and informed judgments as to its effects on the environment. Careful risk assessments must be made, and when the technology is proven within a reasonable margin to be safe, it should be deployed without hesitation.

Along these lines, one of the articles in this book entitled "The Spread of Genetic Constructs in Natural Insect Populations" details the use of transgenic strategies in mosquitoes for controlling malaria. This discussion takes place under the more general topic of genetic driving mechanisms for natural and genetically engineered insects in natural populations. Can one indeed introduce transgenic mosquitoes into the wild so as to suppress significantly the natural (malaria) mosquito populations? What factors hinder the efficacy of the transgenic strategy and what factors enhance it? Are there any dangers that are readily apparent in this strategy? The specific goal is to control the parasite in the midgut of the mosquito so that it cannot be transmitted: the transgenic strategy must be "gut-specific" to use the terminology of the authors. They also explain why an immunization program would not work for insects due to their short lifespan, and due to their inability to synthesize normal antibodies. Also very useful in this article is the outline on the various genetic engineering strategies that have been used for insect pest control, such as inducible fatality genes and sterile insect techniques. But the major emphasis in the article is the need for `driving mechanisms' in ensuring that the strategy works in the wild population: such a mechanism introduces a genetic trait into this population by eliminating individuals without that trait. Transgenic insects must be able to preserve themselves in the natural population and therefore their genetic constructs must be related to the driving mechanism in order to do this. The only thing that might be lacking in this article is a more quantitative analysis, along the lines of what can be found in the field of population dynamics, of the efficacy of transgenic strategies. For example, one might be interested as to the extent of which gene flow is "topologically transitive", i.e. given a certain gene construct and any particular genome, quantify the extent to which this gene construct can find its way into the genome, either through the germ line or from "horizontal" gene transfer.

At the present time there is much angst concerning the release of genetically engineered organisms into the environment, and this is aggravated by Hollywood movies and some of the bad news regarding gene therapies for example. Bt corn and its affect on the butterfly populations has also been hotly debated in the national press, and the genetic engineering of some dangerous viruses has induced fear into the hearts of many. Even somewhat farfetched scenarios such as "genome bombs" have been blown out of proportion as have other threats under the topic of bioterrorism. It is doubtful that this book will relieve these anxieties, irrational as they are, but it does offer a rational assessment of the risks of genetic engineering and what really has been accomplished as of the date of publication. More analysis is needed, especially since breakthroughs in genetics and molecular biology are occurring so frequently that it is becoming difficult to study their impact in a timely fashion.