Review by Choice Review
In this text, Seiber (emer., Univ. of California, Davis) and Cahill (Arizona State Univ., Phoenix) cover numerous issues of atmospheric contamination by various pollutants, including both descriptive material and details of analytic methods available for study of each group. Several chapters discuss techniques that can be used to assess deposition and air movement of the contaminants discussed. Text includes a chapter on chemical and physical properties and how these affect volatilization, absorption, movement, and reactivity; another chapter on environmental fate models; and one on sampling. Also included are a chapter on analysis of pesticides in fog, one on fumigants, and one on drift. One of the final chapters discusses atmospheric virus and pathogen spread, with a strong focus on COVID-19. Though significant portions of this discussion have been published elsewhere in scientific and lay literature, the information is especially important for understanding air transmission in confined spaces and ways of mitigating such transmission. The last two chapters focus on alternatives to chemical pest management, the importance of developing sustainable methods for food production, and the need for methods that impact the food, energy, and water nexus positively. This text includes extensive technical information, making the book a potentially important reference for investigators of atmospheric and ecosystem contamination. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. --Martha E. Richmond, emerita, Suffolk University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
