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Title: An evaluation of approximations of acute hazard indices based on chronic hazard indices for California fossil-fuel power stations

Conference ·
OSTI ID:679354
 [1];  [2]
  1. IWG Corp., San Diego, CA (United States)
  2. Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)

The measures for evaluating risk under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 are yet to be defined. Many risk assessments have used only chronic risk measures (lifetime cancer probability and chronic hazard index) based on yearly averages of long-term dispersion of substances into ambient air. In California, many facilities prepared risk assessments using hourly meteorological data and short-term emission rates, allowing the calculation of an acute hazard index. These risk assessments are more costly and labor-intensive than those using the annualized meteorological data. A simple scheme to estimate the acute hazard index from the chronic index is proposed. This scheme is evaluated for four electric power stations in Southern California. The simple scheme was found lacking due to the inability to reasonably estimate both the hourly emission rates from annual averages and hourly concentrations from annual concentrations. The need for the acute risk measure for stack emission can be questioned based on the more detailed risk assessments performed in California.

OSTI ID:
679354
Report Number(s):
CONF-980632-; TRN: 99:009402
Resource Relation:
Conference: 91. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, San Diego, CA (United States), 14-18 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 91. annual meeting and exhibition. Bridging international boundaries: Clean production for environmental stewardship; PB: [5000] p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English