FOODCHAIN: a Monte Carlo model to estimate individual exposure to airborne pollutants via the foodchain pathway

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5213878

Dixon, E; Holton, G A

Ingestion of contaminated food due to the airborne release of radionuclides or chemical pollutants is a particularly difficult human exposure pathway to quantify. There are a number of important physical and biological processes such as atmospheric deposition and plant uptake to consider. These processes are approximate by techniques encoded in the computer program TEREX. Once estimates of pollutant concentrations are made, the problem can be reduced to computing exposure from ingestion of the food. Some assessments do not account for where the contaminated food is eaten, while others limit consumption to meat and vegetables produced within the affected area. While those approaches lead to an upper bound of exposure, a more realistic assumption is that if locally produced food is not sufficient to meet the dietary needs of the local populace, then uncontaminated food will be imported. This is the approach taken by the computer model FOODCHAIN. Exposures via ingestion of six basic types of food are modeled: beef, milk, grains, leafy vegetables, exposed produce (edible parts are exposed to atmospheric deposition), and protected produce (edible parts are protected from atmospheric deposition). Intake requirements for these six foods are based on a standard diet. Using TEREX-produced site-specific crop production values and food contamination values, FOODCHAIN randomly samples pollutant concentrations in each of the six foodstuffs in an inerative manner. Consumption of a particular food is weighted by a factor proportional to the total production of that food within the area studied. The exposures due to consumption of each of the six foodstuffs are summed to produce the total exposure for each randomly calculated diet.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Maxima Corp., Oak Ridge, TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5213878
• Report Number(s): CONF-840202-20; ON: DE84007917
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
510302* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Terrestrial Ecosystems & Food Chains-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
560151 -- Radiation Effects on Animals-- Man
560161 -- Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology-- Man
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ABSORPTION
ANIMALS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BODY FLUIDS
CEREALS
CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAMINATION
DOSES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FOLIAR UPTAKE
FOOD
FOOD CHAINS
GRAMINEAE
GRASS
INGESTION
INTAKE
MAMMALS
MAN
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEAT
MILK
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PLANTS
PRIMATES
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
ROOT ABSORPTION
UPTAKE
VEGETABLES
VERTEBRATES
WASTES