In the early 1990s, I could not find a textbook from which to teach an Issues in Environmental Pollution course. So began the writing of class notes, added to by student concerns, misunderstandings, questions, and an ever-increasing volume of information on the issues. The result was the text, Understanding Environmental Pollution. It summarizes the basics of many pollution issues, using language understandable to those with a limited science background, while remaining useful to those with more. Four questions are addressed for each pollutant or category of pollutants: what is the pollutant of concern? Why is it of concern? What are its sources? What is being done to reduce, or sometimes eliminate, its emissions into the environment? The impact of pollution on environmental health receives frequent attention with case descriptions posing reflective questions to the reader. Policy issues are often interwoven into the text, as are guidelines on what we, as individuals can do to reduce pollution. This text is not technical, yet provides the basics and, for a number of issues, much detail.

This third edition of Understanding Environmental Pollution has been updated and much revised. On the basis of requests, a short chapter on chemistry basics has been added. This edition places greater emphasis on pollutant movement among water, air, soil, and food, and pollutant transformation and degradation. The movement of pollutants across human boundaries is addressed, as are the problems that pollution events can sometimes bring to sites far removed from points of origin.