Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs) for Time Varying Toxic Plumes
Abstract
Toxic airborne contaminants, when inhaled, can cause adverse health effects. The U.S. EPA tabulates three Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs) for predicting the onset of these adverse effects from specific length exposures to specific concentrations of toxic chemicals for a general population. Inhalation exposures in the real world, however, vary strongly in space and time and thus do not correspond to the specific durations and exposure levels tabulated by the EPA-a complication that EPA does not resolve. This report gives an accurate, science-based algorithm with fast, easy-to-use software to fill this gap. The software package, called EAGLE, predicts the onset of AEGL 1, 2 and 3 conditions for an arbitrary airborne agent time history supplied by the user. EAGLE can be used with field data, sensor data, wind tunnel measurements, Computational Fluid Dynamics models and rapid-response plume prediction software to convert agent time histories into meaningful actionable health effect predictions. It can also be used to predict the strong effects of realistic concentration fluctuations and to compare plume prediction models in a meaningful way.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 12, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA610694
Entities
People
- G. Patnaik
- Jay Paul Boris
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory