Effect of incorporation of uncertainty in PCB bioaccumulation factors on modeled receptor doses

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:218410

Welsh, C; Duncan, J; Purucker, S ^[1]; Richardson, N ^[2]; Redfearn, A ^[3]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Center for Risk Management
2. ABB Environmental Services, Inc., Wakefield, MA (United States)
3. Automated Sciences Group, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) are regularly employed in ecological risk assessments to model contaminant transfer through ecological food chains. The authors compiled data on bioaccumulation of PCBs in plants, invertebrates, birds, and mammals from published literature and used these data to develop regression equations relating soil or food concentrations to bioaccumulation. They then used Latin Hypercube simulation techniques and simple food chain models to incorporate uncertainty in the BAF regressions into the derivation of exposure dose estimates for selected wildlife receptors. The authors present their preliminary results in this paper. Dose estimates ranged over several orders of magnitude for herbivorous, insectivorous, and carnivorous receptors. These results suggest incorporating the uncertainty in BAF values into food chain exposure models could provide risk assessors and risk managers with information on the probability of a given outcome that can be used in interpreting the potential risks at hazardous waste sites.

• OSTI ID: 218410
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
DATA COVARIANCES
FOOD CHAINS
POLLUTION
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
REMEDIAL ACTION
RISK ASSESSMENT
WILD ANIMALS