The cost effectiveness of reducing public exposure to carcinogens in Harris County by a abating chemical plant emissions
The work examines the engineering reasonableness and the cost effectiveness of reducing public exposure to carcinogens n ambient air by abating emissions of organic chemicals in waste gas streams from chemical plants in Harris County, Texas, which contains the large chemical manufacturing complex in the Houston ship channel areas. The work also examined the cost effectiveness of reducing public exposure through changing the way vent streams are released to the atmosphere. The achievable exposure reductions are estimated by use of 1980 census data and of ambient concentration estimates. The ambient concentration estimates are calculated using the Texas Climatological Model Version 2 (TCM-2) and publicly available emissions inventory collected by the Texas Air Control Board. The TCM-2 is based on the steady state Gaussian plume hypothesis, Briggs plume rise formations, Pasquill-Gifford dispersion coefficient approximations, and first order pollutant decay. The cost estimates rely on published studies and on the waste gas stream parameters of the chemical plant vents. The cost effectiveness results are compared with the cost effectiveness of controls typically applied to new sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are controlled because of their contribution to ozone air pollution, not because of the carcinogenicity of their emissions.
- Research Organization:
- Texas Univ., Austin, TX (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 7065017
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
29 ENERGY PLANNING
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AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
TEXAS
AIR POLLUTION
CARCINOGENS
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
CHEMICAL WASTES
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540120* - Environment
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560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
290300 - Energy Planning & Policy- Environment
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