In 1970, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to confront environmental pollution and protect the health of the American people. One of the EPA's top priorities was consolidating numerous state offices to more efficiently carry out its goal of "working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people." But there was one area in which the EPA--like many government agencies of the time--was terribly inefficient: their graphic design and communications department. Millions of dollars were being wasted annually due to nonstandardized formats, inefficient processes and almost everything being designed from scratch. In 1977 the EPA began working with the legendary New York design firm Chermayeff & Geismar (now Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, or CGH), responsible for some of the most recognizable visual identities in the world, such as Chase Bank, PBS, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, Mobil Oil and NBC. Partners Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar and Steff Geissbuhler set about tackling this problem. The result was the 1977 US Environmental Protection Agency Graphic Standards System. Forty years later, Jesse Reed & Hamish Smyth--creators of the NYCTA and NASA Graphics Standards Manual reissues--have partnered with CGH and AIGA, the US's oldest and largest professional organization for design, to publish this classic graphic standards EPA manual as a hardcover volume. Each page is reproduced at the same size as the original three-ring binder pages, using the same vibrant Pantone inks with a total of 14 colors.

It is not uncommon that a group of scientists from many different disciplines join a working group, discuss a topic of interest and edit a volume of articles related to this topic. They may even agree on a jointly written introduction or conclusion . The study group "Environmental Standards" established in 1987 as an expert panel of the German Academy of Sciences and Technology in Berlin broke with that common tradition and became involved in a fascinating, but also pain-staking experiment to compose a document on setting environmental standards that has been literally written and authorized by all group members. The group consisted of eleven individuals representing the following disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, engineering , law , psychology, and sociology/economics. The study group had two major goals: First, to provide a document that summarizes the state of the art in each discipline with respect to the topic of environmental standards. Since it is impossible to cover all environmental hazards in one book, the panel members agreed to limit the discussion of the scientific material to one major case study: the effects of ionizing radiation. This topic was selected because the scientific data base is well developed in this area and levels of anthropogenic release can be compared with natural background levels . These two conditions are rarely met by most chemical hazards.

The rapid growth of the world population - nearly six-fold over the last hundred years - combined with the rising number of technical installations especially in the industrialized countries has lead to ever tighter and more strained living spaces on our planet. Because ofthe inevitable processes oflife, man was at first an exploiter rather than a careful preserver of the environment. Environmental awareness with the intention to conserve the environment has grown only in the last few decades. Environmental standards have been defined and limit values have been set largely guided, however, by scientific and medical data on single exposures, while public opinion, on the other hand, now increasingly calls for astronger consideration of the more complex situations following combined exposures. Furthermore, it turned out that environmental standards, while necessarily based on scientific data, must also take into account ethical, legal, economic, and sociological aspects. A task of such complexity can only be dealt with appropriately in the framework of an inter disciplinary group.

A comprehensive and systematic guide to environmental rights and their relationship with standards of protection globally, nationally and locally.

Oil Spill Environmental Forensics provides a complete view of the various forensic techniques used to identify the source of an oil spill into the environment. The forensic procedures described within represent various methods from scientists throughout the world. The authors explore which analytical and interpretative techniques are best suited for a particular oil spill project. This handy reference also explores the use of these techniques in actual environmental oil spills. Famous incidents discussed include the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989 and the Guanabara Bay, Brazil 2000. The authors chronicle both the successes and failures of the techniques used for each of these events. Dr. Zhendi Wang is a senior research scientist and Head of Oil Spill Research of Environment Canada, working in the oil and toxic chemical spill research field. He has authored over 270 academic publications and won a number of national and international scientific honors and awards. Dr. Wang is a member of American Chemical Society (ACS), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), and the International Society of Environmental Forensics (ISEF). - International experts show readers the forensic techniques used in oil spill investigations - Provides the theoretical basis and practical applications for investigative techniques - Contains numerous case studies demonstrating proven technique