Lexikon

substances of very high concern, which are very persistent (very difficult to break down) and very bio-accumulative in living organisms. Annex XIII defines criteria for the identification of vPvBs and Annex I lays down general provisions for their assessment. vPvBs may be included in Annex XIV and by that be made subject to authorisation. (Source: REACH Glossary)

vitrification is a technology which uses an electric current to melt contaminated soil at elevated temperatures (1,600 to 2,000°C or 2,900 to 3,650°F). Upon cooling, the vitrification product is a chemically stable, leachresistant, glass and crystalline material similar to obsidian or basalt rock. The high temperature component of the process destroys or removes organic materials. Radionuclides and heavy metals are retained within the vitrified product. Vitrification may be conducted in situ or ex situ.

abbreviation for Volatile Organic Compounds. There are several VOCs among hydrocarbons, such as BTEX.

organic compounds that evaporate readily into the air. In the Hungarian air-regulation VOCs are defined as organic compounds, with higher vapour pressure than 0.01 kPa on 293.15 ^oK.

VOCs include substances such as benzene, toluene, methylene chloride, and methyl chloroform.

extrusive igneous rocks are formed at the Earth crust's surface as a result of the partial melting of rocks within the mantle and crust. The melt, with or without suspended crystals and gas bubbles, is called magma. When it REACHes the surface, magma extruded onto the surface either beneath water or air, is called lava. The lava cools and solidifies almost instantly when it is exposed to the relatively cool temperature of the atmosphere. Quick cooling means that mineral crystals don't have much time to grow, so these rocks have a very fine-grained or even glassy texture. Hot gas bubbles are often trapped in the quenched lava, forming a bubbly, vesicular texture. In terms of the composition the volcanic rocks are classified in three large groups: basalts (greyish black coloured), andesites (greyish, redbrown coloured), rhyolite (white coloured). In Hungary basalt rocks are to be found in the Balaton and Salgótarján area, while andesite rocks extend from the North Danube area to the Mátra. The Zemplén mountains are mostly made up of rhyolites and partly by andesites. See also volcanic rock, magmatic rock

see also igneous rock

see 2006/12/EC waste directive

waste hierarchy refers to the 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability. The 3Rs are meant to be a hierarchy, in order of importance.However in Europe the waste hierarchy has 5 steps: reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery and disposal.

The waste hierarchy has taken many forms over the past decade, but the basic concept has remained the cornerstone of most waste minimisation strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.

Some waste management experts have recently incorporated a "fourth R": "Re-think", with the implied meaning that the present system may have fundamental flaws, and that a thoroughly effective system of waste management may need an entirely new way of looking at waste. Source reduction involves efforts to reduce hazardous waste and other materials by modifying industrial production. Source reduction methods involve changes in manufacturing technology, raw material inputs, and product formulation. At times, the term "pollution prevention" may refer to source reduction.

Another method of source reduction is to increase incentives for recycling.

Source reduction is typically measured by efficiencies and cutbacks in waste. Toxics use reduction is a more controversial approach to source reduction that targets and measures reductions in the upstream use of toxic materials. Toxics use reduction emphasizes the more preventive aspects of source reduction but, due to its emphasis on toxic chemical inputs, has been opposed more vigorously by chemical manufacturers.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_hierarchy

waste incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion of waste material. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam and ash.

Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry. It is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. It is recognized as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials (such as biological medical waste). Incineration is a controversial method of waste disposal, due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants.

Incineration is common in countries such as Japan where land is more scarce, as these facilities generally do not require as much area as landfills. Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) are broad terms for facilities that burn waste in a furnace or boiler to generate heat, steam and/or electricity. Combustion in an incinerator is not always perfect and there have been concerns about micro-pollutants in gaseous emissions from incinerator stacks. Particular concern has focused on some very persistent organics such as dioxins, furans, PAHs,... which may be created within the incinerator and afterwards in the incinerator plume which may have serious environmental consequences in the area immediately around the incinerator. On the other hand this method or the more benign anaerobic digestion produces heat that can be used as energy.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management

waste reuse means that the discarded items or its elements are used again. Initiatives include hand-me-downs, garage sales, quilting, and composting (nutrients).

Waste recycling means that waste are separated into materials that may be incorporated into new products. This is different from reuse in that energy is used to change the physical properties of the material. Initiatives include composting, beverage container deposits and buying products with a high content of post-consumer material.

Type of waste recycling is capturing useful material from waste to energy programs. Includes methane collection, gasification and digestion, etc.

Incineration means high temperature destruction of material. Differs from gasification in that oxygen is used; differs from burning in that high temperatures consume material efficiently and emissions are controlled.

a bioreactor landfill operates to rapidly transform and degrade organic waste. The increase in waste degradation and stabilization is accomplished through the addition of liquid and air to enhance microbial processes. This bioreactor concept differs from the traditional "dry tomb" municipal landfill approach.

A bioreactor landfill is not just a single design and will correspond to the operational process invoked. There are three different general types of bioreactor landfill configurations:

• Aerobic - Leachate is removed from the bottom layer, piped to liquids storage tanks, and recirculated into the landfill in a controlled manner. Air is injected into the waste mass, using vertical or horizontal wells, to promote aerobic activity and accelerate waste stabilization.
• Anaerobic - Moisture is added to the waste mass in the form of recirculated leachate and other sources to obtain optimal moisture levels. Biodegradation occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produces landfill gas. Landfill gas, primarily methane, can be captured to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and for energy projects.
• Hybrid (Aerobic-Anaerobic) - The hybrid bioreactor landfill accelerates waste degradation by employing a sequential aerobic-anaerobic treatment to rapidly degrade organics in the upper sections of the landfill and collect gas from lower sections. Operation as a hybrid results in an earlier onset of methanogenesis compared to aerobic landfills.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has defined a bioreactor landfill as "any permitted Subtitle D landfill or landfill cell where liquid or air is injected in a controlled fashion into the waste mass in order to accelerate or enhance biostabilization of the waste." The U.S. EPA is currently collecting information on the advantages and disadvantages of bioreactor landfills through case studies of existing landfills and additional data so that EPA can identify specific bioreactor standards or recommend operating parameters.
Source: US-EPA, Clu-In − http://www.clu-in.org/techfocus/default.focus/sec/Bioreactor_Landfills/cat/Overview/

from the point of view of water quality some chemical substances have priority. These are the substances identified in accordance with Article 16(2) and listed in Annex X of Water Framework Directive. Among these substances there are "priority hazardous substances" which means substances identified in accordance with Article 16(3) and (6) for which measures have to be taken in accordance with Article 16(1) and (8).

The substances on the first priority list are the following:

water scarcity and drought are different phenomena although they are liable to aggravate the impacts of each other. In some regions, the severity and frequency of droughts can lead to water scarcity situations, while overexploitation of available water resources can exacerbate the consequences of droughts. Therefore, attention needs to be paid to the synergies between these two phenomena, especially in river basins affected by water scarcity.

Water scarcity occurs where there are insufficient water resources to satisfy long-term average requirements. It refers to long-term water imbalances, combining low water availability with a level of water demand exceeding the supply capacity of the natural system.

Water availability problems frequently appear in areas with low rainfall but also in areas with high population density, intensive irrigation and/or industrial activity. Large spatial and temporal differences in the amount of water available are observed across Europe.

Beyond water quantity, a situation of water scarcity can also emerge from acute water quality issues (e.g. diffuse or point source pollutions) which lead to reduced fresh/clean water availability.

Currently the main way of assessing Water Scarcity is by means of the Water Exploitation Index (WEI) applied on different scales (i.e. national, river basin). The WEI is the average demand for freshwater divided by the long-term average freshwater resources. It illustrates to which extent the total water demand puts pressure on the available water resource in a given territory and points out the territories that have high water demand compared to their resources.

The maps attached as links show the WEI for the European river basins in 2000 and for a forecasted scenario in 2030.

all services which provide, for households, public institutions or any economic activity: (a) abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment and distribution of surface water or groundwater, (b) waste-water collection and treatment facilities which subsequently discharge into surface water.

wave technology is a special electricity generating wind technology: winds passing over water create surface waves. The faster the wind speed, the longer the wind is sustained, the greater the distance the wind travels, the greater the wave height, and the greater the wave energy produced. Wave power devices capture energy from ocean surface waves to produce electricity. One type of device is a buoy that rises and falls with a wave. Another type is a surface-following device, whose up-and-down motion increases the pressure on oil to drive a hydraulic motor.

see weathering

weight of eidence in general is a measure of evidence on one side of an issue as compared with the evidence on the other side of the issue, or to measure the evidence on multiple issues.

In the law: measure of credible proof on one side of a dispute as compared with the credible proof on the other, particularly the probative evidence considered by a judge or jury during a trial.

Medical diagnosis: weights of evidence is a quantitative method for combining evidence in support of a hypothesis. The method was originally developed for a nonspatial application in medical diagnosis, in which the evidence consisted of a set of symptoms and the hypothesis was of the type "this patient has disease x". For each symptom, a pair of weights was calculated, one for presence of the symptom, one for absence of the symptom. The magnitude of the weights depended on the measured association between the symptom and the pattern of disease in a large group of patients. The weights could ten be used to estimate the probability that a new patient would get the disease, based on the presence or absence of symptoms.

Environmental sciences: weights of evidence was adapted in the late 1980s for mineral potential mapping with GIS. In this situation, the evidence consists of a set of exploration datasets (maps), and the hypothesis is "this location is favourable for occurrence of deposit type x". Weights are estimated from the measured association between known mineral occurrences and the values on the maps to be used as predictors. The hypothesis is then repeatedly evaluated for all possible locations on the map using the calculated weights, producing a mineral potential map in which the evidence from several map layers is combined. The method belongs to a group of methods suitable for multi-criteria decision making.

Sources:

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/weight+of+evidence

http://www.ige.unicamp.br/wofe/documentation/wofeintr.htm

Mechanical hazards include:

By type of agent:

• Impact force: collisions, falls from height
• Struck by objects
• Confined space
• Slips and trips
• Falling on a pointed object
• Compressed air/high pressure fluids (such as cutting fluid)
• Entanglement
• Equipment-related injury

By type of damage:

• Crushing
• Cutting
• Friction and abrasion
• Shearing
• Stabbing and puncture

Other physical hazards:

• Noise
• Vibration
• Lighting
• Barotrauma (hypobaric/hyperbaric pressure)
• Ionizing radiation
• Electricity
• Asphyxiation
• Cold stress (hypothermia)
• Heat stress (hyperthermia)
• Dehydration (due to sweating)

Biological hazards include:

• Bacteria
• Virus
• Fungi
• Mold
• Blood-borne pathogens
• Tuberculosis

Chemical hazards include:

• Acids
• Bases
• Heavy metals
• Lead
• Solvents
• Petroleum
• Particulates
• Asbestos and other fine dust/fibrous materials
• Silica
• Fumes (noxious gases/vapors)
• Highly-reactive chemicals
• Fire, conflagration and explosion hazards:
• Explosion
• Deflagration
• Detonation
• Conflagration

Psychosocial issues include:

• Work-related stress, whose causal factors include excessive working time and overwork
• Violence from outside the organisation
• Bullying, which may include emotional and verbal abuse
• Sexual harassment
• Mobbing
• Burnout
• Exposure to unhealthy elements during meetings with business associates, e.g. tobacco, uncontrolled alcohol

Musculoskeletal disorders, avoided by the employment of good ergonomic design

xenobiotics are substances foreign to an entire biological system. They are artificial substances, which did not exist in nature before their synthesis by humans. The term originates from Greek, meaning foreigner, stranger.

zero-discharge technology comprises industrial processes designed to prevent the release of any pollutant harmful to the environment (e.g. recovery of solvents, cleaning rinses, and other chemicals used in manufacturing by collecting them and removing dissolved and suspended materials so the liquids can be reused).

zero waste agriculture is a type of sustainable agriculture which optimizes use of the plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and algae, to produce biodiverse-food, energy and nutrients in a synergistic integrated cycle of profit making processes where the waste of each process becomes the feedstock for another process.

The biogas digester is the heart of most zero waste agriculture (ZWA) systems. It is a 3000 year old anaerobic digestion process, where all organic waste can be converted into biogas, which is used for heating. The residue of anaerobic digestion is utilised for algae production, and agae for growing fish. Microalgae can alternatively be utilised for biodiesel-production. In sunny climates, a one hectare zero waste farm can produce over 1000 litres of oil in a year from the chlorella microalgae grown on biogas digester effluent in a 500 squermeter shallow pond. The nutritive high protein waste from the oil extraction process can be used as animal feed.

The water recycling can also be made complete in such an agricultural system: all the used waters can be naturally treated and reused.

Zero waste agriculture combines ecological or organic farming practices with a complete waste utilisation system.

Zero waste agriculture is optimally practiced on small 1−5 ha sized family owned and managed farms and it complements traditional farming & animal husbandry as practiced in most third world communities. Zero Waste Agriculture also preserves local indigenous systems and existing agrarian cultural values and practices.

Zero waste agriculture presents a balance of economically, socially and ecologically benefits as it:

1. optimizes food production in an ecological sound manner
2. reduces water consumption through and recycling and reduced evaporation
3. provides energy security through the harvesting of biomethane (biogas) and the extraction of biodiesel from micro-algae all of which from as a by-products of food production
4. provides climate change relief through the substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from both traditional agriculture practices and fossil fuel usage
5. reduces the use of pesticides through biodiverse farming.

ZWA is a target of the agrarpolitics in many third countries, such as Brazil, India, China, Columbia and South Africa.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_waste_agriculture