BOOKS RECEIVED.

HEMP HORIZONS: THE COMEBACK OF THE WORLD'S MOST PROMISING PLANT

John W. Roulac. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 1997. [phone]. 211 pp. $18.95 Paperbound.

John W. Roulac is an author, an entrepreneur, and a composting and agricultural-fibers advocate. He has researched sustainable living systems for more than fifteen years. In 1987, Roulac founded Harmonious Technologies, an internationally recognized leader in the field of home composting. Roulac has also founded three environmental organizations: the Pasadena-based Arroyo Seco Council, Forests Forever, and the North American Industrial Hemp Council (NAIHC).

In Hemp Horizons, Roulac explores both the origins of industrial hemp and its current emergence as a marketplace phenomenon. Hemp Horizons provides an overview of the history, politics, global uses, markets, and farming practices for hemp. Arguing that the production, marketing, and manufacture of hemp and hemp products offer possibilities for new enterprises in the United States and competition in the world market, Roulac urges Americans to repeal the anachronistic law prohibiting hemp production.

PLURALISM BY THE RULES: CONFLICT AND COOPERATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Edward P. Weber. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. [phone]. 308 pp. $55.00 Clothbound, $23.95 Paperbound.

Despite America's pluralistic, fragmented, and generally adversarial political culture, participants in pollution control politics have begun to collaborate to reduce the high costs of developing, implementing, and enforcing regulations. Weber uses examples from this traditionally combative policy arena to propose a new model for regulation, "pluralism by the rules," a structured collaborative format that can achieve more effective results at lower costs than typically come from antagonistic approaches. Pluralism by the Rules includes chapters on: the high costs of doing business in pollution control politics, the transition to collaborative games, cleaning the air of urban smog and dirty gasoline, and preventing pollution through the collaborative search for better information.

CHEMICAL EXPOSURES: LOW LEVELS AND HIGH STAKES

Nicholas Ashford & Claudia Miller. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. [phone]. 440 pp. $39.95 Clothbound.

Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes explains how day-to-day variations in chemical exposure may cause unusual and seemingly unpredictable symptoms, including many that have been termed psychosomatic in the past. It describes how everyday, low-level exposures may cause fatigue, memory impairment, headaches, mood changes, breathing difficulties, and a host of chronic, unexplained illnesses including chronic fatigue syndrome and Gulf War syndrome. Chemical Exposures clarifies the nature of chemical sensitivity, shows how it differs from traditional allergies and toxicity, and suggests how federal and state governments can help those who are affected.

Nicholas Ashford is Professor of Technology and Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, served as Chairman of the Committee on Technology, Innovation, and Economics of the EPA National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, and was a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board. Claudia Miller is Assistant Professor in Environmental and Occupational Medicine in the Department of Family Practice at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She is boarded in Internal Medicine and in Allergy and Immunology, and holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Health. Claudia holds appointments on two national scientific panels: the Department of Veterans Affairs' Persian Gulf Expert Scientific Committee and the National Toxicology Board of Scientific Counselors.

THE TAINTED DESERT: ENVIRONMENTAL RUIN IN THE AMERICAN WEST

Valerie L. Kuletz. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. [phone]. 336 pp. $22.99 Paperbound.

Valerie Kuletz has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and currently is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. The Tainted Desert is a full-length study of the Yucca Mountain Project, in which Nevada's Yucca Mountain is the proposed permanent repository for a shipment of 27,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste that is being transported across the country and into the Southwest from twenty-eight countries. Kuletz outlines the consequences of nuclearism--which have been kept secret for more than fifty years--and documents in the past, present, and future nuclear legacies of the United States and the world. The Tainted Desert exposes the level of buildup of nuclear waste in toxic dumps around the country and reveals the tragic consequences that the Cold War arms race and thoughtless nuclear energy policy have had on America's inter-desert region and its inhabitants over the years. Kuletz combines interviews with scientists and Native Americans affected by the nuclear activity with concrete empirical data to shed light on both the scientific and human sides of this global controversy. Kuletz focuses on issues of military secrecy, environmental racism, and the hazards to our health and safety of living with toxic waste.

CLIMATE-CHANGE MITIGATION AND EUROPEAN LAND-USE POLICIES

Edited by W. Neil Adger, et al. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. [phone]. 350 pp. $90.00 Clothbound.

The UN Convention on Climate Change requires countries to reduce their polluting greenhouse-gas emissions from all sources including agriculture, forestry, and land use. Emissions associated with land use are inherent in modern farming and forestry practices, with the commitments under the Convention representing a clear challenge to restructuring of Europe's agriculture and forestry policies. Climate-change Mitigation and European Land-use Policies primarily considers the actions of Europe and other regions in reducing land use-related greenhouse-gas fluxes. It was developed from a workshop held as part of the EU Concerted Action "policy measures to control environmental impacts from agriculture." It is aimed at practitioners, academics, and policy makers who wish to understand the importance of the greenhouse-gas emissions issue for European and greenhouse-gas land use.

YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Edited by Gunther Handl. Volume 7. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. [phone]. 763 pp. $180.00 Clothbound.

Yearbook of International Environmental Law presents a review of the past year's international environmental legal developments. This volume includes those developments occurring in the year 1996. It is divided into four main chapters: articles, the year in review, literature review, and documents. Yearbook of International Environmental Law is a comprehensive book and guide to those environmental legal developments occurring in countries from Bangladesh to China.

KEEPING BUILDINGS HEALTHY: How TO MONITOR AND PREVENT INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

James T. O'Reilly, et al. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. [phone]. 361 pp. $79.95 Clothbound.

Keeping Buildings Healthy tells professionals what they must know in order to identify, evaluate, and resolve the complex issues presented by building-related illness effectively. Suitable for both manufacturing and clerical environments, it offers legal, medical, behavioral, industrial hygiene, and engineering expertise found in no other single publication. Keeping Buildings Healthy is supplemented with case studies, plus extensive reference materials on indoor environmental health standards, organizations, publications, and an indoor environmental quality evaluation checklist. Coverage includes a review of common indoor environmental quality problems, such as HVAC systems; health complaint investigations; practical and legal concerns related to government inspections; and indoor health litigation, legal options of different parties, liability risks, and insurance implications.

James T. O'Reilly is Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Philip Hagan is Director of Safety and Environmental Management at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Ronald Gots is a physician with the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine in Rockville, Maryland. Alan Hedge is a professor in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.