Application of multimedia pollutant transport models to risk analysis
This paper will explore how multimedia models can be used in an environmental health risk analysis. The purpose of risk analysis is to assess and manage the adverse consequences of human activities. Multimedia models offer a way of organizing information about landscape and chemical properties in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the link between source and receptor for toxic chemicals. We begin with an overview of the risk-analysis process, including risk assessment and management. This is followed by a description of a multimedia model, called GEOTOX, which was developed for use in evaluating the health risks of trace elements, radionuclides, and organic chemicals. The model uses landscape properties such as run-off, precipitation, evaporation, biomass density, and soil properties and chemical properties such as molecular weight, vapor pressure, and solubility to determine how a substance partitions within the environment. The predicted environmental concentrations are used with exposure models and combined with health-effects data to estimate the potential human health risks associated with a given source. We demonstrate the use of GEOTOX by a sample application to three chemicals. We examine how these models can be used in risk assessment to better define the relationship between contaminant releases and resulting doses to humans. We also examine how these models can provide risk managers and decision makers with a means for determining the value of reducing uncertainties about chemical and landscape properties.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA); California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Dept. of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5887046
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-93068; CONF-860156-2; ON: DE86010157
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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