Environmental transport and human exposure: A multimedia approach in health-risk policy
In his treatise Air, Water, and Places, the ancient-Greek physician Hippocrates demonstrated that the appearance of disease in human populations is influenced by the quality of air, water, and food; the topography of the land; and general living habits. This approach is still relevant and, indeed, the conerstone of modem efforts to relate public health to environmental factors. What has changed is the precision with which we can measure and model these long-held relationships. Environmental scientists recognize that plants, animals, and humans encounter environmental contaminants via complex transfers through air, water, and food and use multimedia models to evaluate these transfers. In this report, I explore the use of multimedia models both to examine pollution trends and as a basis for characterizing human health risks and ecological risks. The strengths and weaknesses of the approach are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); California State Government, Sacramento, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10133456
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-110622; CONF-9111295-1; ON: DE93007501
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Environmental research conference multimedia approach on integrated environmental protection,Toronto (Canada),25-26 Nov 1991; Other Information: PBD: May 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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