McKay, Donald. "Front matter" Multimedia Environmental Models ...

©2001 CRC Press LLC
CHAPTER 3
Environmental Chemicals and
Their Properties
3.1 INTRODUCTION AND DATA SOURCES
In this book, we focus on techniques for building mass balance models of
chemical fate in the environment, rather than on the detailed chemistry that controls
transport and transformation, as well as toxic interactions. For a fuller account of
the basic chemistry, the reader is referred to the excellent texts by Crosby (1988),
Tinsley (1979), Stumm and Morgan (1981), Pankow (1991), Schwarzenbach et al.
(1993), Seinfeld and Pandis (1997), Findlayson-Pitts and Pitts (1986), Thibodeaux
(1996), and Valsaraj (1995).
There is a formidable and growing literature on the nature and properties of
chemicals of environmental concern. Numerous handbooks list relevant physicalchemical
and toxicological properties. Especially extensive are compilations on
pesticides, chemicals of potential occupational exposure, and carcinogens. Government
agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environment
Canada, scientific organizations such as the Society of Environmental Toxicology
and Chemistry (SETAC), industry groups, and individual authors have
published numerous reports and books on specific chemicals or classes of chemicals.
Conferences are regularly held and proceedings published on specific chemicals
such as the “dioxins.” Computer-accessible databases are now widely available for
consultation. Table 3.1 lists some of the more widely used texts and scientific
journals. Most are available in good reference libraries.
Most of the chemicals that we treat in this book are organic, but the mass
balancing principles also apply to metals, organometallic chemicals, gases such as
oxygen and freons, inorganic compounds, and ions containing elements such as
phosphorus and arsenic. Metals and other inorganic compounds tend to require
individual treatment, because they usually possess a unique set of properties. Organic
compounds, on the other hand, tend to fall into certain well defined classes. We are
often able to estimate the properties and behavior of one organic chemical from that