Summary for Wednesday March 3rd

Topic 1: According to the EPA, the US generated 2.6 million tons of E-waste in 2005 (2-4% of total solid waste). About 13% of this was recycled and 50-80% of recycled e-waste is exported- often to countries without the environmental and workers' rights regulations that are present in the US. Export is banned by 32 countries (mostly the EU) through the 1989 Basal Convention which was not ratified by the US of Canada. E-waste is a water quality concern because toxic metals such as Pb, Cd, and Hg are present.

Topic 2: Hg

Topic 3: The RCRA of 1976: what changes did it require for new and existing landfills and why is it so important to water quality?

Topic 4: Pb is highly toxic and has been employed throughout history for an abundance of uses; as a result, there is a lot of lead in our environment. You should know the health effect of lead exposure, the sources of environmental lead, why lead exposure in children is such a problem, the role of Thomas Midgely Jr. and Clair Patterson in the levels of environmental lead in the US, and the implications of the recent study by Reyes (2007) on the impact of childhood Pb exposure on crime. If you are interested in reading about the fascinating history of Pb use, toxicity research, and regulation, there are excellent resources here and here.

I would like for you to read two articles for Friday's class:

Cocaine in surface waters: a new evidence-based tool to monitor community drug abuse by Ettore Zuccato et al. (2005)- a peer-reviewed article from the Journal Environmental Health on the prevalence of cocaine metabolites in the rivers of Northern Italy (.html) (.pdf)

Drugging Our Waters by Elizabeth Royte on the prevalence of prescription drugs and drug metabolites in US waters. (.html) (.pdf)

Do not forget about the outside lecture opportunity double header tomorrow evening...

Slides shown in lecture today have been posted as a .pdf to Sakai.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.