BISC 313 Lecture 9: Lecture 09, Jan 25

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Department of Humanities Biological Sciences
• Course: BISC 313
• Professor: Chris Kennedy

Document Summary

Widespread releases: releases in sufficient quantity and on a wide enough area that there could be measurable contamination of a significant part of the planet, eg. Ddt, pcbs, radioactive fallout, freons, nox, sox, co2. Forms that chemicals can exist in in the atmosphere. Vapor pressure particle phase (equilibrium of chemicals in these two phases: vapour = chemical as gas, particle = everything else, itself, aerosols, fogs, droplets, water (ice, snow, rain) Eg. for vapor pressure, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pah: ubiquitous env contaminant, some are carcinogenic, biggest sources are things like petroleum, combustion of organic materials, benzo(a)pyrene low vp, aliphatic hydrocarbons high vp. Things with low vp + hydrophobic tend to bind to particles rather than gas. Horizontal movement: eg. atmospheric transport, global transport (look up grasshopper effect, not necessary, most when in vapour phase. Vertical movement: deposition (from atmosphere down, most when in particle phase.