A fugacity approach for modeling the transport of airborne organic chemicals in an air/plant/soil system

Conference · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:6533404

Oliver, L D ^[1]; McKone, T E ^[2]

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1. North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

An important issue facing both public and private agencies is the identification and quantification of exposures by indirect pathways to toxic chemicals released to the atmosphere. With recent public concerns over pesticides such as malathion and alar in foods, greater attention is being given to the process of chemical uptake by plants. Whether chemicals taken up by plants can accumulate and ultimately enter the human food chain are important questions for determining health risks and safe levels of toxic air-pollutant emissions and pesticide application. A number of plant-toxicokinetic, or botanicokinetic,'' models have been developed to give estimates of how chemicals are partitioned and transported within plants. In this paper, we provide a brief review of these models, describing their main features and listing some of their advantages and disadvantages. We then describe and demonstrate a five-compartment air/plant/soil model, which builds on and extends the features included in previous models. We apply this model to the steady-state chemical partitioning of perchloroethylene, hexachlorobenzene, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in grass as test cases. We conclude with a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the model.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6533404
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-107143; CONF-910659-36; ON: DE93009283
• Resource Relation: Conference: 84. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), Vancouver (Canada), 16-21 Jun 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
AIR
AIR POLLUTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
FOOD
MALATHION
PESTICIDES
PLANTS
SOILS
WIND
CARBOXYLIC ACID ESTERS
ESTERS
FLUIDS
GASES
INSECTICIDES
MASS TRANSFER
ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
THIOLS
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540220 - Environment
Terrestrial- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)