Posted by Allan on February 26th, 2010
A new analysis by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) for the Western Governor’s Association explores renewable resource decisions in the West. The report’s “sensitivity analysis” examines how decisions about which renewable sources are chosen, and how transmission lines are expanded, are affected by changes in policies and other uncertainties.
Read the rest here:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/02/26/renewable-energy-target/
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Posted by Allan on February 25th, 2010
In the San Francisco Bay area March 18? Come to the next Environmental Energy Technologies Division Distinguished Lecture at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
Indoor Chemical Exposures
Humans Non-respiratory Interactions with Room Air
Thursday March 18, 2010 at Noon
Building 50 Auditorium
Thee marked difference in pollutant concentrations between an occupied and un-occupied room are only partially explained by human bio-effluents. Humans alter levels of ozone and related oxidants such as nitrate and hydroxyl radicals in the rooms they inhabit; in effect, they change the oxidative capacity of room air. Ozone-initiated reactions on exposed skin, hair and clothing generate products, including potentially irritating chemicals whose concentrations are much higher in the occupant’s breathing zone than in the core of the room.
Additionally, humans rapidly and directly sorb semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) from room air. Direct air-to-skin transport, followed by dermal absorption, can be a meaningful exposure pathway for phthalate esters, brominated flame retardants, chlorinated pesticides and other semivolatile indoor pollutants.
This talk will summarize findings from recent research which indicate that human/room-air interactions must be fully considered to properly evaluate how chemical exposures in indoor environments are impacted by various measures that increase energy efficiency in buildings.
http://eetd.lbl.gov/dls/lecture-03-18-10-weschler.html
For information on attending contact JoANne Lambert, JMLambert@lbl.gov
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Posted by Allan on February 17th, 2010
Art Rosenfeld, a founder of the study of energy efficiency in buildings, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=02172010
The Academy cited him “for leadership in energy efficiency research, development, and technology deployment through the development of appliance and buildings standards and policy.”
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Posted by Allan on February 16th, 2010
EETD scientist Venkat Srinivasan is writing a blog about batteries and battery research. It’s called “This Week in Batteries.” He’s already posted two entries, “Should I get ready to buy a plug-in hybrid vehicle?” and “A Moore’s law for batteries? Maybe not.”
Check it out here:
http://thisweekinbatteries.blogspot.com/
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Posted by Allan on February 8th, 2010
by Lynn Yarris
Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to virtually all surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens. This new potential health hazard was revealed in a multi-institutional study led by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
“The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture. Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months. Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines or TSNAs,” says Hugo Destaillats, a chemist with the Indoor Environment Department of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. “TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke.”
Destaillats is the corresponding author of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled “Formation of carcinogens indoors by surface-mediated reactions of nicotine with nitrous acid, leading to potential third-hand smoke hazards.”
Co-authoring the PNAS paper with Destaillats were Mohamad Sleiman, Lara Gundel and Brett Singer, all with Berkeley Lab’s Indoor Environment Department, plus James Pankow with Portland State University, and Peyton Jacob with the University of California, San Francisco.
Read the rest here:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/02/08/dangers-of-third-hand-smoke/
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Posted by Allan on February 8th, 2010
by Julie Chao
The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most commonly blamed culprit—greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide—from other particles in the air that may be causing the melting. Menon and her collaborators found that airborne black carbon aerosols, or soot, from India is a major contributor to the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers.
“Our simulations showed greenhouse gases alone are not nearly enough to be responsible for the snow melt,” says Menon, a physicist and staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. “Most of the change in snow and ice cover—about 90 percent—is from aerosols. Black carbon alone contributes at least 30 percent of this sum.”
Menon and her collaborators used two sets of aerosol inventories by Indian researchers to run their simulations; their results were published online in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
Read the rest here:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/02/03/black-carbon-himalayan-glaciers/
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