Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Multiple low-dose extrapolation models in cancer risk assessment of power plant air emissions

Conference · · Proceedings, Annual Meeting, Air Pollution Control Association; (USA)
OSTI ID:5134208
;  [1]
  1. IWG Corp., San Diego, CA (USA)

The process of assessing the cancer risks associated with power plant emissions can be divided into four steps: emissions estimation, air dispersion analysis, population exposure assessment, and cancer risk estimation. The final step, risk estimation, involves estimation of an individual's probability of incurring cancer during his lifetime resulting from exposure to a carcinogen. Electric Power Reserach Institute has developed the Air Emissions Risk Assessment Model (AERAM) for the analysis of cancer risks due to coal-fired power plant emissions. This model contains four modules to perform the four steps of risk assessment listed above. The user defines power plant characteristics, pollutant emission rates are calculated, an air dispersion analysis is performed, and person-exposure given the population distribution is found. The risk module performs low dose extrapolation given dose-response data from either epidemiologic or toxicologic studies. The choice of data for low-dose extrapolation is very important. Many factors may impact the risk estimate as a result of the choice of epidemiologic data vs. toxicologic data. The purpose of this paper is to examine the choice of low-dose extrapolation model and the effect of data set selection on the results of low dose extrapolation in AERAM.

OSTI ID:
5134208
Report Number(s):
CONF-870695--
Journal Information:
Proceedings, Annual Meeting, Air Pollution Control Association; (USA), Journal Name: Proceedings, Annual Meeting, Air Pollution Control Association; (USA) Vol. 3; ISSN 0193-9688; ISSN PRAPA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English