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Tracking airborne lead pollution D. E. Kimbrough and I. Suffet ex plored the use of lead, antimony, and arsenic ratios as tracers of second ary lead smelter media in the atmo sphere. The media from two battery recycling facilities were character ized for Pb, Sb, As, Cd, Ag, and Cu. This was followed by collection of airborne emissions at various dis tances from the facilities. Results indicated that concentrations of the five heavy metals downwind of the secondary lead smelters were greater than those upwind. Concen trations decreased with distance from each facility. However, the char acteristic ratios of Pb:Sb:As from each facility were maintained, in ad dition to the correlated presence of Cd and Ag. The authors identified the secondary lead smelter responsible for the airborne emissions leading to pollution in each soil and determined the route of transport. {Environ. Sci. Techno!., this issue, 2217-21)
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Urbanization's effects R. V Pouyat, M. J. McDonnell, and S.T.A. Pickett studied an urban-rural transect to ascertain the effects of ur banization on forest soil properties. They determined the soil properties affecting the growth of oak stands along the transect. High concentra tions of heavy metals (Pb, Cu, and Ni) and base cations (Ca, Mg, and K) were associated with the oak stand soils in urban areas, which correlated with urban development indicators such as percentage of urban cover, population density, traffic volume, and road den sity. The authors concluded that ur ban-rural transect studies can be used to develop predictive models of eco system change from urban develop ment. (J. Environ. Qual. 1995, 24, 516-26)
TOXICOLOGY Covariance analysis
terstate highway transportation of hazardous materials. They com puted the minimum risk transporta tion route versus the practical route for 100 pairs of state capitals. The authors found that rerouting haz ardous materials would cost be tween $0.7 million and $3.4 million per life saved. They conclude that this compares favorably with costs and benefits of other federal regulations. (Risk Anal. 1995, 15(1), 61-67)
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SOIL
Environmental justice As they are currently performed, en vironmental risk assessments may systematically discriminate against poor and minority communities. B. D. Israel identifies injustices that oc cur at each step of the environmen tal risk assessment process. Con structive solutions are proposed to reduce discrimination, such as in corporating demographic character ization in exposure assessments and shifting to risk producers the safeexposure burden of proof. (Ν. Υ. Univ. Environ. Law J. 1995, 3, 469522)
3 9 4 A • VOL. 29, NO. 9, 1995 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Normalizing contaminant concen trations to a secondary parameter, such as dividing the contaminant concentration by the lipid concen tration in biotic samples, is a com mon analysis technique for locating differences between samples. C. E. Hébert and K. A. Keenleyside found that this can lead to erroneous data interpretations. They prefer analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for examining the relationship between the contaminant concentration and the parameter, a relationship that is used to adjust the concentration data. Three case studies of data comparing concentrations of contaminants in fish—two real and one hypothetical—are used to demonstrate the approach. The demonstration shows that ANCOVA provides correct data interpretation. (Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 1995, 14(5), 801-7) Contributors to Research Watch are Brian Eitzer, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT; Stephen Geiger, Remediation Technologies, Inc., King of Prussia, PA; Vincent Hand, Miami University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Oxford, OH; Richard Hurst, CHEMPET Research Corp., Moorpark, CA; Louis Kovach, Ecolife Associates, Wilmington, DE; and Margaret Whittaker, NSF International, Ann Arbor, MI.
