10/15/2018

Unit 2: Organic Chemicals

& Environmental
Movement – Silent Spring
OCTOBE R 15, 2018
ECI 40: INTRODU C T I ON TO ENVIRONMEN TAL ENGINE ERING
PROF. COLLEEN BRONNER

Office Hours for Week of 10/8/2018

Monday: early afternoon
Tuesday: 2-4 pm in Ghausi 3118
Wednesday: No Office Hours - traveling for a conference

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Today’s Agenda
Debate recap
Discuss quiz #1
Silent Spring
Organic Chemistry

Unit 2: Organic Chemicals &

Environmental Movement
Environmental Hazardous Waste
Silent Spring
Organic Compounds (focus on synthetic) & their properties
Love Canal

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Unit 2: Learning Objectives

1. Describe importance of Silent Spring on environmental movement
2. Explain why Rachel Carson was effective at capturing the public’s attention
3. Compare the campaign against Carson to a modern campaign against science
4. Distinguish between organic and inorganic chemicals
5. Explain differences in properties between natural and synthetic organic chemicals
6. Describe the bioaccumulation process
7. Describe potential human health exposure pathways for a chemical
8. Based on chemical properties, determine if a chemical is a VOC, semi-volatile, or non-volatile compound
9. Based on chemical properties, describe whether the chemical is soluble, likely to adsorb on to organic
material, likely to bioaccumulate
10. Explain why it is difficult to link human health impacts to a specific chemical exposure (e.g., why was it
difficult connect Love Canal contamination with health impacts suffered by residents)

A Few Symbols of the U.S. Environmental

Movement
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962)

LA’s Smog (1950s & 1960s)

Dead Lake Erie (1960s)

Fire on Cuyahoga River (1969)

Love Canal (late 1976-1978)

Three Mile Island (1979)

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Excerpt from Silent Spring

Chapter 1 of Silent Spring

Initial thoughts
◦ Main message
◦ What parts had the most impact on you?

Rachel Carson
Background
◦ Born in 1907
◦ Grew up outside of Pittsburgh in poor industrialized area (near
glue factory)
◦ Won scholarship to college and completed master’s degree in
zoology at Johns Hopkins University
◦ Dropped out of Ph.D. program to help support family

Career
◦ Eventually science editor for U.S. Fish and Wildife Service
◦ Freelanced for The Atlantic and Reader’s Digest
◦ Wrote multiple books about the sea

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Silent Spring (1962)

Presents view of nature compromised by synthetic
pesticides, with focus on DDT
Described impacts on food chain that could
eventually affect humans
Most of the information published was known by
scientific community
Widely read by public
Heavily criticized by chemical industry

Carson connected with audience

Knew readership audience
◦ Moral responsibility
◦ Protection of future generation
Moral questions posed led book to being compared
with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Hysteria about radiation
◦ Drew a parallel between nuclear fallout and a new, invisible
chemical threat of pesticides
Easy to Visualize Examples: Ospreys
◦ Beginning to die out due to weakened eggshells caused by
DDT

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Synthetic Organic Pollutants

Unlike natural organic compounds, lack
natural enzyme that degrade compounds
◦ Commonly associated with adverse human health
effects
Pesticides
◦ Non-agricultural and agricultural uses
◦ Do not always remain where applied
◦ Damage to central nervous system, reproductive
system and other genetic problems

Carson’s Example: DDT

Synthesized in 1874

Used as a pesticide starting in 1939

◦ Application discovered by Paul Herman Muller
◦ Muller won a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology
for his work in 1948

Used in WWII to control malaria, lice, the plague,

and typhus
◦ WHO estimated 25 million lives saved during its period
of use

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DDT: Usage in U.S.

Post WWII: leftover DDT and unemployed pilots
Sprayed aerially over large areas in U.S. as pesticide
◦ Controlled mosquitos and fire ants
◦ Application relatively inexpensive
◦ Highly effective due to its persistence in environment
◦ Controlled insects in crops and forests, homes and gardens, etc.

Peak use in 1959: over 80 million pounds used

Image of Chemicals at Time

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DDT Properties
Organochloride pesticide
◦ Semi-volatile
◦ Persistent in environment
◦ Low water solubility
◦ Adsorbs to organic matter
◦ Accumulates in fatty tissue

DDT Concerns
Ecological and Human Health Effects
◦ Declining populations of birds
◦ Lower acute toxicities for humans during
application

Food chain concerns due to biomagnification

◦ Reproduction system impacts on animals of higher
trophic levels
◦ Interferes with enzyme regulating calcium in birds

Pesticide-resistant insects

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Carson Challenged the Norms of the

Time Period
Against the idea that humankind should
control nature

Promoted Cautious or Informed

Technological Advancement
Note against use of chemicals, just unrestrained use
◦ “It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do
contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals
indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of
their potentials for harm. . . . If we are going to live so intimately with these
chemicals . . .eating and drinking them . . . we had better know something
about their nature and power.” – Rachel Carson

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Book’s Reception: the positive

Book sold numerous copies due in part to its three-
part serialization in the New Yorker that summer
Selected for Book-of-the-Month-Club
Carson appeared on “CBS Reports”
◦ Her careful speaking assured her credibility
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipbc-6IvMQI
President John F. Kennedy – established presidential
committee to investigate pesticides

Book’s Reception: the negative

Not welcome by the chemical industry

Velsicol (a manufacturer of DDT) threatened to

sue book publisher and The New Yorker

Carson attacked as:

◦ Communist sympathizer
◦ Spinster with an affinity for cats
◦ “Sinister influences”
◦ Agricultural propagandist in the employ of the
Soviet Union
◦ Killer of people in developing countries (later)

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Congressional Hearings – June 1963

Carson testified before Senate subcommittee
on pesticides
◦ “Our heedless and destructive acts enter into the
vast cycles of the earth and in time return to bring
hazard to ourselves” – Carson to subcommittee
Testimony highlighted problems identified and
presented policy recommendations
◦ Did not call for ban on pesticides
◦ Argued against aerial spraying

Silent Spring Legacy

Sold more than 2 million copies
Contributed to ban of DDT in 1972
◦ Already near its peak production in 1963 and starting to wane
◦ Mounting evidence some insects were already resistant to DDT
◦ Companies willing to end domestic use as long as could continue to
export to foreign countries
Counter-attack strategies in environmental issues
◦ Discredit scientists
Contributed to Environmental Movement
◦ U.S. EPA created in 1970
◦ Environmental Legislation (1970s and early 1980s)

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Toxic Substances Control Act (1976)

Administering Agency: U.S. EPA

Addresses production, importation, use, and disposal of specific

chemical in U.S.

Requires reporting, record-keeping, and testing requirements

Maintain TSCA inventory of over 83,000 chemicals

Silent Spring Takeaways

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Chemicals of Concern (COCs)

Mainly organic chemicals

Other common hazardous

chemicals include
◦ Heavy metals
◦ Radionuclides

What are properties of chemicals that

are important to engineers
Time to remember CHE 2A

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Chemicals of Concern (COCs)

Mobility

Toxicity

Persistence

Exposure pathways
◦ Dependent on chemicals present and local site
conditions

What is an organic chemical?

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Organic Compounds

What changes if I replace Hs with Cls?

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Background on Concern: Synthetic

Organic Pollutants
Organic compounds/chemicals contain hydrogen and carbon
atoms

Natural organic compounds

◦ Extracted from natural sources
◦ Easily degraded by natural enzymes

Synthetic Organic Compounds

◦ Developed in laboratories
◦ Can persist in environment because no natural enzymes degrade
◦ Many are carcinogens (cause cancer)
◦ Sources include petroleum-based industries and industrial solvents

What is a VOC? What properties does it

have?

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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Organic compounds can be divided into volatile,
semivolatile and nonvolatile compounds
◦ VOCs are lighter compounds that can be dispersed into
the air

VOCs are the most common groundwater pollutants

◦ Less common in surface waters – Why?

Many are suspected carcinogens or mutagens

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Examples: Benzene, acetone

Properties
◦ Relatively low molecular weight
◦ High vapor pressure (evaporate quickly)
◦ High Henry’s Constant (higher probability
in vapor phase than aqueous)
◦ Unlikely to bioaccumulate/adsorb to
organic matter

Examples: MTBE, TCE

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Pesticides
Synthetic organic chemicals to eliminate unwanted
insects, rodents, other animals, plants, fungi and
microorganisms

Pesticides used to improve crop yields, increase public

health and enhance appearance of landscaped areas
◦ Approximately 50% of use is for nonagricultural uses

Intention: Remain in application area to control pests

and then degrade into harmless products

Health Concerns
◦ Damage to central nervous system, reproductive system and
other genetic problems

DDT
Properties
◦ Semi-volatile
◦ Persistent in environment
◦ Low water solubility
◦ Adsorbs to organic matter
◦ Accumulates in fatty tissue DDT exposure pathways of
concern - humans
Food ingestion (still concern in
DDT transport mechanisms U.S.)
◦ Persists in atmosphere Inhalation
◦ Adsorbs to soil Dermal absorption
◦ Bioconcentration & biomagnification

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How do contaminants flow through the

subsurface?

NAPL – Non-aqueous Phase Liquid

LNAPL
◦ Less dense than water
◦ Example: gasoline

DNAPL
◦ Denser than water
◦ Example: Trichloroethylene

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Potential Phases of Subsurface

Contaminants
Attached to Solid Phase(soil, sediment)

Present as NAPL

Dissolved in pore water

Dissolved in vapor

In most cases, assume

equilibrium conditions
have been reached.

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Class Summary

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