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

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hensive, and reliable, and they have gained greater credibility as decision-support<br />

tools. No doubt this trend will continue, especially as young environmental scientists<br />

and engineers take over the reins of environmental science and continue to develop<br />

new fugacity models.<br />

This book has been written as a result of the author teaching graduate-level<br />

courses at the University of Toronto and Trent University. It is hoped that it will be<br />

suitable for other graduate courses and for practitioners of the environmental science<br />

of chemical fate in government, industry, and the private consulting sector. The<br />

simpler concepts are entirely appropriate for undergraduate courses, especially as a<br />

means of promoting sensitivity to the concept that chemicals, which provide modern<br />

society with so many benefits, must also be more carefully managed from their<br />

cradle, in the chemical synthesis plant, to their grave of ultimate destruction.<br />

At the end of most chapters is a “Concluding Example” in which a student may<br />

be asked to apply the principles discussed in that chapter to one or more chemicals<br />

of their choice. Necessary data are given in Table 3.5 in Chapter 3. I have found<br />

this useful as a method of assigning different problems to a large number of students,<br />

while allowing them to explore the properties and fate of substances of particular<br />

interest to them.<br />

We no longer regard the environment as a convenient, low-cost dumping ground<br />

for unwanted chemicals. When we discharge chemicals into the environment, it must<br />

be with a full appreciation of their ultimate fate and possible effects. We must ensure<br />

that mistakes of the past with PCBs, mercury, and DDT are not repeated. This is<br />

best guaranteed by building up a quantitative understanding of chemical fate in our<br />

total multimedia environment, how chemicals will be transported and transformed,<br />

and where, and to what extent they may accumulate. It is hoped that this book is<br />

one step toward this goal and will be of interest and use to all those who value the<br />

environment and seek its more enlightened stewardship.<br />

©2001 CRC Press LLC<br />

<strong>Donald</strong> Mackay

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