EnvironmentalChemistry.com is a publication of J.K. Barbalace, inc., which is wholly responsible for its content. J.K. Barbalace, inc. is a privately held company, which is owned by Julia & Ken Barbalace. The editorial staff for EnvironmentalChemistry.com consists of:
Ken first created what became EnvironmentalChemistry.com while he was studying at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Ken is responsible for all editorial and operational decisions as well as all all programing on EnvironmentalChemistry.com. Ken can be contacted at:
Roberta brings her many years of experience in the hazardous waste transportation industry and teaching college chemistry and environmental courses to EnvironmentalChemistry.com. She not only contributes many of the articles on this site, but edits and evaluates articles contributed by guest writers.
Julia, who is originally from the Yekaterinburg region of Russia, assists with research, data collection and copy editing. Julia holds a BA in English and in addition to copy editing articles for EnvironmentalChemistry.com, is an English-Russian translator and interpreter.
EnvironmentalChemistry.com's mission is to be an educational site that makes the subject of chemistry a little less daunting to the average student. It is our desire to make this site as classroom friendly as possible so that it can help students have a positive learning experience. Along the way, we hope to encourage more students to take an interest in chemistry, environmental issues and science in general.
Originally called YOGI'S Behemoth, EnvironmentalChemistry.com first went on line on October 22, 1995 while Ken Barbalace, its founder, was a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. From this modest beginning, this site has grown into a well respected and very informative resource on the topics of chemistry, environmental issues and hazardous materials transportation. Today EnvironmentalChemistry.com is a highly respected and referenced website that is linked to by tens of thousands of webpages and used by professionals and in classrooms around the world on a daily basis.
The chemistry section of this site revolves around a very detailed periodic table of elements that has been extensively researched and cross checked for accuracy. As with the rest of the site both the periodic table and the chemistry section are on going projects with research constantly taking place in an effort to both enlarge this section as well as ensure the accuracy of material already provided.
The environmental section of this site consists of articles addressing important issues we face as a society. As environmental issues are often open to great debate and exaggeration by various interests, extra care is taken to ensure that these articles are balanced, objectively written and based on materials drawn from reliable sources. In addition bibliographies and related readings are provided with these articles to aid in further research on a given subject.
Our go green" section focuses on real world home projects that demonstrate different ways to reduce energy consumption and/or carbon footprint or just be nicer to the environment. In time our goal is to feature many different green projects from new home construction, to home renovation projects, to basic home maintenance to home garden projects.
The hazardous materials transportation section of this site focuses on United States federal regulations and attempts to help guide individuals in the right direction in regards understanding how they affect transportation. As this section is based on federal regulations, citations to applicable regulations are provided throughout these articles and resources. These materials shouldn't be taken as an authoritative interpretation of the regulations, rather they should be used as a general guide and the referenced citation should always be referred to when trying to determine regulatory compliance.
If you are an educator, and would like to use EnvironmentalChemistry.com in your classroom or refer your students to it for their studies, please by all means do so. We just ask that you do not republished on another website, rather all pages MUST be pulled directly from our server (EnvironmentalChemistry.com).
If you would like to use printed copies of any of the web pages on this site, you may do so and all pages are designed to be printer friendly. When printing these pages for use as handouts, we simply ask that you follow these two guidelines:
This site designed with the student in mind, so rest assured that all pages on this site are suitable for general audiences.
As with any web site, EnvironmentalChemistry.com relies on some source of funding to keep it on the Internet as well as to allow for its expansion. As this site does not have a wealthy benefactor, it must rely on banner advertising to generate the revenue needed for its operational expenses and existence. Great care is taken to ensure that the advertising placed on this site is suitable for a general audience, and that the advertisers' sites are actually of value to visitors of this site and that it is not obnoxious in nature.
There is a lot of unsubstantiated junk on the Internet and anyone can post anything without regards to factual accuracy and without documenting their sources. As such we believe it is important to include bibliographies along with articles that are published on this site. We feel this aids the reader in finding more information on the topic of the article and helps them to evaluate the quality of articles we publish. Except in extremely rare instances we avoid the use of anonymous sources.