In response to growing concerns over wetland habitat loss and the associated impact on water resources, federal and state legislation has been enacted to protect vulnerable wetland habitats from the impacts of humans. In order to examine the efficacy of current coastal resource policy and its implementation, a study was conducted in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, a coastal city of the Atlantic, focusing on the quantification of wetland habitat change over time within a specific area of interest. The study incorporated an assessment of the effects of escalating population pressures and subsequent urban development on local wetland habitats due to the inherent threat of habitat degradation resulting from negligent development practices. The research methodology included a series of stakeholder interviews conducted within the Mount Pleasant community in order to define the key players who shape coastal resource policy formation, implementation, and enforcement. Further, a spatial analysis examined land use change over time. A historical record of regional land use derived from remotely sensed satellite imagery enabled the measurement of land use change over time. The results of a change detection analysis indicate an acceleration of wetland habitat loss in the second decade chosen for analysis in spite of strengthened coastal resource regulations enacted within the same time period. These results support a need for improved regulatory enforcement strategies and utilization of conservation-driven development practices.

Swamps are unique ecological communities that provide many valuable ecosystem services. In Kentucky, however, many swamps were altered by cypress removal and land development in their watersheds. Cypress Creek Swamp, which lies near Paducah in western Kentucky, is a good example of a swamp whose ecological integrity may be threatened by past and current nearby land use practices. This study was conducted to assess the water quality and macro- and microinvertebrate communities in the swamp. Three sites were monitored for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductivity, depth, phosphorus measured as orthophosphate, nitrite (NO2") and nitrate (NO3", NOx collectively), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3). The temperature, dissolved oxygen, NH3 and NOx concentrations changed with the growing season, but pH demonstrated little variability among the sites. The specific conductivity and phosphorus levels were highly variable. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated no significant difference in microinvertebrate taxa identified among locations or through time. A oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated no significant difference in macroinvertebrate population total densities between locations (P = 0.847), and a oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant difference in microinvertebrate population total densities among locations (P = 0.153) or through time (P = 0.294). As development continues in the watershed, this work provides an important baseline for future water quality monitoring in the preserve.

Recycling is an important issue when dealing with solid waste. It keeps many tons of garbage out of our landfills and prolongs landfill life. Although many people in the Bowling Green area participate in the mandatory recycling program, there are still many who do not. The number of people who participate in the program has steadily grown over the past five years; however, there are still many people who need to get involved. This research argues that much effort has been put into recycling in recent years at the global, national, and local level. However, it also argues that even more remains to be done, especially at the local level. I have conducted a sixty-day field study of both commercial and residential sites in the Bowling Green area. This field study shows that everyday there are many recyclables as well as other items placed into the trash that need not go into our garbage. This field study will also show that there are some very wasteful industries in Bowling Green. They are throwing food items away that could be used to help hungry people in the Bowling Green vicinity. It will also show that some industries, such as Houchens Markets, throw recyclables such as cardboard into their dumpster even though they have a cardboard bailer on the premises. This research will also offer reasons for people choosing not to use the recycling program. I have conducted a survey of one hundred people who live in the Bowling Green area. This survey shows that one reason some people do not use the recycling program is that they feel they are forced to do it. A few people went so far as to say that they feel the recycling program is a form of communism, and they will not use the program for that reason. I have also included entire matrices from both the residential and commercial study areas. These matrices list every item that I found during this field study. I have also included some recommendations for increased participation in the recycling program, as well as some suggestions for the industries as to how they could dispose of their unwanted food items and help the general public at the same time. I wish people could see the Earth the way that I see it. If they could, they wouldn't even think about recycling: it would become a part of their everyday routine.

The purpose of this study is to investigate environmentalism in the United States. The dimension of perspective receives considerable attention. The prevailing perspective by a society regarding the importance of the health of the natural world greatly influences the degree of support of environmental organizations, environmental policy, as well as the direction charted for the future of that society. The perspectives of the Native Americans and the dominant European cultures which arrived in North America are presented and contrasted. It is supposed that the perspective which prevails in the United States regarding the importance of the natural world is evolving. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Manifest Destiny and the American Industrial Revolution exacted a steep cost from the nation's natural resources. Previously perceived as "raw materials," today the unmanipulated environment is viewed in terms of its recreational, aesthetic, ecologic, and spiritual worth. This evolving perspective is demonstrated qualitativelythrough case studies featuring methods of sustainable agriculture, by an ecological restoration project, and by grassroots eco-poltical activism. The changing perspective is quantified by measuring the growth of some of the nation's leading environmental organizations. It is hypothesized that those organizations have experienced significant growth over the study period, or from 1980-1994. It is concluded that there has been phenomenal growth of the leading environmental organizations during the study period. The prevailing perspective by the citizens of the United States is indeed evolving toward a view that is more sustainable since the missions of the nation's leading environmental organizations are endorsed by the financiers of those organizations Environmentalists, now more than ever, must remain encouraged and vigilant in order to increase the chances that the newly evolved perspective will become policy. Increased participation in the political process is facilitated by the personal computer which allows both the monitoring of environmental voting records of the individual Members of Congress while making those legislators accessible by electronic mail systems. Finally, the optimal sustainable perspective is reflected in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each step toward the ultimate environmental perspective indicates genuine progress for America.

Tourism is the world's largest industry. The fastest growing segment of the travel and tourist trade is ecotourism. The concept of sustainable development insists that humans cooperate with nature in the search for an ecological economy which can support present and future populations. Ecotourism attempts to attain this elusive goal by preserving ecosystems while generating revenue for local communities. In this study, the researcher examines the positive and negative effects of ecotourism on people, culture, and landscape. An analysis of tourism data seems to suggest that developing countries, which are popular ecotour destinations, are benefitting economically and ecologically from properly planned ecotourism.

The effectiveness of using constructed wetlands to remove unwanted nutrients, increase dissolved oxygen while at the same time decreasing the biological oxygen demand, and to reduce the levels of the Fecal Coliform Bacteria from a swine operation was evaluated. The indicator of proper waste purification will be the result of testing for the following: ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, total phosphorus, total suspended solids, dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, and Fecal Coliform Bacteria. The wetland was divided into nine connected cells that covered approximately 3.8 hectares. Material was loaded from an anaerobic holding lagoon on four separate occasions during the testing period. As the material passed through the wetland, the vegetation, water column, substrate, and microbial populations functioned as the purification factors in the wetlands. During the sampling period, water was collected from each cell and analyzed for results. The data indicated that the constructed wetlands were effective in the waste management at a large swine production unit. Ammonia nitrogen showed an acceptable decrease, allowing nitrogen to be freed or converted into nitrate nitrogen. Total phosphorus and dissolved solids showed an expected decrease. Total suspended solids showed an overall decrease from the upper cells to the lower cells; however, results fluctuated during the testing period. Dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand showed an almost perfect inverse relationship with dissolved oxygen increasing as biological oxygen demand decreased. The removal of Fecal Coliform Bacteria was the most impressive, with the majority of bacteria being removed in the upper cells.

Anthropogenic activities such as oil spills are major sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution in the environment. Bivalves such as C. virginica can accumulate high levels of PAHs in tissue due to a limited metabolic capacity for these compounds. Accordingly, bivalves have served as key biomonitoring species for contaminants and exposure to PAH through seafood consumption can also be an important risk to human health due to the toxic and carcinogenic potential of these compounds. For evaluating bivalve PAH levels, conventional analyses are limited due to extensive time and expense and unreliability. This work demonstrates the application of immunological techniques to overcome such limitations in conventional techniques and to explore PAH kinetics and partitioning mechanisms within oysters. Biosensor technology coupled with a PAH antibody was employed to rapidly and inexpensively screen PAH levels in adult oysters in an Elizabeth River watershed monitoring survey. Through a novel extension of a fundamental chemistry theory, PAH concentrations measured in oyster fluid by biosensor were used to predict tissue concentrations. Biosensor-derived predictions had a strong association with tissue concentrations measured by conventional chemical analysis. A strong association between the biosensor and tissue concentrations when compared against regulatory PAH thresholds and efficient mapping of PAH levels throughout the watershed, demonstrates the real-world value of the method. The biosensor was also employed in PAH kinetics studies. Oysters were exposed to crude oil water accommodated fractions (WAF) in the laboratory to explore the application of the biosensor in oil spill response; however, further work is needed to improve the precision of biosensor-derived predictions at non-steady state. In a field exposure study, PAH levels in cultured triploid and diploid oysters deployed at a PAH hotspot in the Elizabeth River were compared to wild oysters inhabiting the site. Differences in PAH kinetic trends were observed between oyster fluid and tissue. When combined with the observed differences in PAH levels in specific tissue types between transplanted and wild oysters, there is evidence that internal partitioning and tissue-specific kinetic rates may be important factors in determining the overall PAH body burden in an oyster and warrants further investigation to improve precision in future biomonitoring efforts. The fluorescently tagged PAH antibody was also employed in an immunohistochemical (IHC) technique to visualize complex PAH mixtures within oyster tissue. Oysters were collected throughout the laboratory WAF exposure, and the observed change in signal intensity in tissue followed a similar trend to measured PAH concentrations. In visualizing transplanted vs. wild oyster tissue, the trends in signal intensity supported the differences observed in tissue-specific PAH concentrations between groups. Overall, the biosensor shows promise as a tool to overcome current analytical challenges faced in environmental monitoring of biota. While further work is needed to understand the influence of chemical and biological factors on PAH kinetics and biosensor-derived tissue predictions, the unique analytical features of these technologies are valuable for addressing these mechanistic questions. When coupled with IHC, these immunologic techniques can provide new insight to address complexities in environmental pollution and health risk assessments that cannot be as feasibly and inexpensively answered by standard methods.

In recent decades, concerns about potential health effects resulting from exposure to contaminants that cause indoor air pollution have dramatically increased. The purpose of this study was to assess the indoor air quality of three buildings at Western Kentucky University and to examine and characterize indoor levels of basic comfort parameters, carbon dioxide, and fungi as well as occupants' perceptions of poor indoor air quality and the role of fungi on reported health symptoms. The three buildings included in the study were: Tate Page Hall (TPH), Jones Jagger Hall (JJH) and Science and Technology Hall (STH). Fifty-three questionnaires were completed by faculty and staff in the three buildings. The questionnaires, in addition to a walkthrough inspection and information from the Environmental Health and Safety Director and building coordinators formed the basis for classification of the three buildings (TPH and STH as complaint and JJH as noncomplaint). Comfort parameters, CO2, and fungi were measured indoors at selected offices for approximately five hours each day in summer of 2004. Measurements were also made outdoors for comparison of indoor samples. Airborne samples for viable fungi were collected onto malt Extract Agar using a single-stage Impactor calibrated at a flow rate of 28 liters per minute (L/min) for five minutes. Air samples for non-viable fungi were collected with Air-O-Cell Cassettes using the SKC Bio-Pump at a flow rate of 15L/min for ten minutes. Additionally, bulk samples were collected from areas with visible molds. The fungal samples were sent to two contract and accredited laboratories for analysis. The basic parameters were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The results of the questionnaires showed response rates of 35 % for STH and TPH, and 30 %, for JJH. The most common indoor air quality (IAQ) complaints were allergies (27%), mold (27%), dust in the air (17%), temperature (13%), lack of airflow or stuffiness (10%), and physical symptoms (7%). The average indoor levels of basic parameters were within the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE's) recommended limits for both complaint buildings. ANOVA results showed that the levels of environmental measurements differed significantly across buildings. Airborne indoor concentrations of fungi were significantly higher than the outdoor in STH and TPH. Whereas JJH had less than 50% indoor fungi compared to outdoor. The most prevalent fungi were Aspergillus, Acremonium Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Yeast. However, certain toxin producing fungi (Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Stachybotrys species) that have been associated with human health effects such as asthma and allergies were isolated from a number of indoor samples at higher levels in the complaint buildings than the non-complaint building. The presence of higher indoor (compare to outdoor) levels and more species of toxigenic fungi would indicate inadequate ventilation and poor indoor air quality. Poor indoor air quality resulting from allergic diseases has been associated with increased rate of Absenteeism and reduced productivity. Remedial actions are recommended for improved building design, operation and maintenance with a view to improving indoor air quality, occupants comfort, and public health.

The use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to conduct environmental exposure assessments provides valuable insight about disparities in fish consumption and contaminant exposure. Ninety-five community-specific fish consumption surveys were administered to low-income African American women (ages 16--49) residing in the Southeast community of Newport News, Virginia, USA, in 2008. The mean fish consumption rate for the women surveyed was 147.8 g/day (95% CI: 117.6-185.8), a rate substantially higher than the mean fish consumption rate reported for U.S. women (1.8 g/day 95% CI: 1.51-2.04). Through collaborative partnerships established between current researchers and The Moton Community House (a local community center), African American women (ages 16--49 yrs) from the same community were surveyed in 2010 to assess the reproducibility and consistency of fish consumption patterns (ingestion rates, exposure frequencies, weight, and fish consumption rates), and the reliability of the survey responses. Fish consumption patterns were reproducible and the survey responses were reliable. Comparison between years revealed that fish consumption patterns remained consistent over time. In addition, the high fish consumption rate estimated in 2008 was reaffirmed in 2010 with a rate (134.9 g/day; 95% CI: 88--207 g/day) not materially different and still considerably higher than mean fish consumption rates reported for U.S. women. Daily mercury intake rates were estimated using consumption data from 2008 and three consumption scenarios (canned white, canned light, and no tuna) due to confirmed differences in mercury concentration between canned white and light tuna. Arithmetic mean daily mercury intake rates were 0.284 ug/kg-bw/day (95% CI: 0.229 - 0.340 ug/kg-bw/day) using canned white tuna, 0.212 ug/kg-bw/day (95% CI: 0.165 - 0.259 ug/kg-bw/day) using light tuna, and 0.197 ug/kg-bw/day (95% CI: 0.151 - 0.243 ug/kg-bw/day) using no tuna. Probabilistic estimations of dietary mercury exposure for African American women (ages 16--49) from the Southeast Community were generated and compared to point estimates. Four different consumption scenarios were assumed, representing 1) no, 2) light, 3) both light and white, and 4) white tuna consumption. The probabilistic models generated lower dietary mercury intake rates than the point estimations, under these consumption scenarios. Arithmetic mean daily mercury intake rates (95% Cl) for the probabilistic models were 0.149 (+/-0.003), 0.148 (+/-0.003), 0.172 (+/-0.004), and 0.202 (+/-0.004) ug/kg-bw/day, respectively for no, light, both, and white tuna consumption. Reducing the amount of fish consumed in probabilistic models resulted in lower dietary mercury exposures for each consumption scenario. at a rate that was a quarter of what was normally consumed, the percentages of exposures that exceeded the US EPA's oral RfD for mercury were 14%, 13%, 18%, and 25% respectively for no, light, both, and white tuna consumption. In this community we learned that even though African American women in Southeast Newport News, Virginia are not subsistence fishers, they consume seafood at a subsistence fisher rate. In addition, estimates of dietary mercury exposure were high enough to warrant concern.

This project tested the hypothesis that non-experts' rankings of ergonomic stressors differ from those of health professionals. Tennessee ranks fifth in the production of tomatoes, an industry in which stoop labor, hand harvesting, and packing predominate. Specific parts of tomato workers' bodies are at risk of ergonomic injury such as, shoulders (loads), backs (stoop labor), lower extremities (posture), and upper extremities (repetitive motion). Of equal importance is our expectation that the scores assigned by non-experts will correlate with those of experts, leading to a community consensus for action and practical intervention research. Video footage of harvesting and sorting was analyzed using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment method, revealing movements and postures likely to be injurious. A panel of 13 health professionals (“experts”) and industry personnel (“non-experts”) were assembled to rate job task video segments in tomato harvesting and packing using the REBA method. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the extent to which raters agree on the major body parts at risk of cumulative trauma disorders. Agreement and variation among professional groups, as well as intra-rater variability, were assessed . The possibility of achieving consensus among various professional groups with respect to the most dangerous tasks is discussed.