Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Hill MK. 1997. Understanding Environmental Pollution.Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 512 56680 0. pp xvi +316.

Rather than produce another standard description of pollution this book takes a more direct solutions-oriented approach by adopting a four-fold analysis to a range of current pollution issues. For each example Hill asks four questions: what is it, why worry about it, where does it come from and what can we do about it. It is this more than anything that sets the book apart from others. The first four chapters provide the reader with an overview of pollution which covers standard ground but also takes a more radical approach with less common topics. Thus, definitions, classifications, and prevention are followed by examinations on toxicology and risk analysis. There follows nine chapters dealing with a range of pollutants - air, water, waste, metals, pesticides, estrogens (sic), energy and the home.

There are many strengths in this book. The four-fold analysis is made extremely clear in each of the pollution chapters (5 to 13). There are boxes containing more complex and detailed material. Each chapter has a set of questions and references. This makes it an ideal text for students. Against this is a heavily US flavour to examples and a fair spread of acronyms which might be off-putting to some. However, these points can be easily overcome by using examples from elsewhere and relying on the core text to provide the theoretical input. It's different approach (being more applied than theoretical) and get-out-there-and-solve-it attitude allied to a very clever set of case studies blending traditional concerns with very modern ones like estrogens make this a good addition to the literature.