Mary, an environmental activist and lecturer and Louis (chemical engineering Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York), with some help from fellow chemical engineers, identify and describe environmental problems for people who have a limited environmental technical background, such as students, engineers and scientists, lawyers, journalists, and consumers. In addition to background material on specific issues, they suggest how individuals can help alleviate problems. After an overview, they take up in turn air, water, solid waste, pollution prevention, environmental risk, and other areas of interest. Among specific topics are the classification and sources of pollutants, atmospheric dispersion modeling, water chemistry, hospital waste management, energy conservation applications, health risk assessment, noise pollution, and environmental justice. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)