Environmental Engineering Dictionary (5th edition)

• Published in: Reference reviews 2018-09, Vol.32 (7/8), p.32-33
• Main Author: Goodier, John
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dictionaries; Encyclopedias; Environmental engineering; Nonfiction
• ISSN: 0950-4125; 1758-7697
• DOI: 10.1108/RR-07-2018-0110

This is the fifth edition of this title. It is basically a dictionary with most of the entries short and simple descriptions. However, some entries are greatly expanded. These are mainly where there are legislative or safety concerns. To give some idea of the type and length of the entries, Fair Labor Standards Act gets few lines on minimum wage and overtime but Fall Protection has the expected few lines and then expands to over three pages. OSHA (The Occupational Safety and Health Act) gets about half a page, but this is followed by OSHA Standards which has almost four pages listing the regulation. The acetylene regulation also has a Did You Know box about the National Electric Code’s designation on working near acetylene. These Did You Know boxes with an important message turn up in many entries. Somewhere in between is the entry for Bacteria which include various extra bits of information about binary fission and micron (which does not get an individual entry). Some of the entries are unexpected. Yellow Boy is clumps of iron oxide and a specific incident is cited. Gout gets and entry but I am not sure what it has to do with the environment. Having given some indication of the variety and range, I should now mention the Dictionary’s strengths. It outlines of laws and regulation is thorough. A good range of engineering methodologies are described in some detail. It is good on toxicology food safety and the like. It covers soil issues, and general ecological topics. The book ends with a list of references and further reading.