Hazardous Substances and Human Health (eBook)

Exposure, Impact and External Cost Assessment at the European Scale

Till M Bachmann (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2006 | 1. Auflage
612 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-046252-3 (ISBN)

Infos

There is widespread public concern about hazardous chemicals that are contained in air, soil, water and food. Policy has therefore adopted a series of laws and regulations concerning emissions into and concentration levels in different media including food. As policy makers do not only have to consider the protection of the environment but also need to ensure a well-functioning economy at the same time, these limit or target values need to be set in a balanced way. The main problem, however, is to compare the costs for achieving these targets with the benefits to society by having a smaller exposure to hazardous substances (cost-benefit analysis).

This book sets out to improve the reliability of cost-benefit analyses particularly of hazardous substances present in air, water, soil and food. It suggests that the human health risk assessment of chemicals is performed in a bottom-up analysis, i.e., following a spatially resolved multimedia modelling approach. In order to support cost-benefit analyses, the approach is accompanied by monetary valuation of human health impacts, yielding so-called external costs. Results for selected priority metals show that these external costs are small compared to those by the classical air pollutants and involve rather long time horizons touching on the aspect of intergenerational equity within sustainable development. When including further hazardous substances, the total external costs attributable to contaminants are expected to be more substantial.

Inhalt

Cover 1
Contents 18
Preface 8
Acknowledgements 10
Zusammenfassung 12
List of Figures 26
List of Tables 32
Abbreviations and acronyms 40
Introduction 44
Assessment of human health impacts and the approach followed 48
Definitions and considerations of some terms 49
Nomenclature of substances of concern 49
Nomenclature with respect to exposure 50
Considerations with respect to risk and impact assessment 53
Impact Pathway Approach 55
Model aim and requirements 58
Modelling framework 62
Conclusion with respect to the modelling framework 73
Multimedia environmental fate and/or exposure assessment of prioritised contaminants 76
Existing multimedia environmental fate models with or without exposure assessment 77
Multi-zonal multimedia environmental fate models without exposure assessment 77
Multi-zonal multimedia environmental fate and exposure models 80
Oligo-zonal multimedia environmental fate and exposure models 85
Non-Mackay-type multimedia environmental fate and exposure assessment 94
Selection of contaminants 98
Discussion on mercury and its compounds 100
Discussion on 'dioxins' 100
Trace elements and Mackay modelling 102
Selected substances 104
Need for development 105
Multimedia environmental fate assessment framework: outline, atmospheric modelling and spatial differentiation 108
Dispersion in air and air to ground interface 19
Linking of an air quality model and a soil/water model 111
Interface between air and soil/water 112
General description of the soil and water environmental fate model 113
Defining the inputs to the terrestrial and aquatic environment.... 114
General remarks on processes considered in the environmental fate modelling 114
Remarks on the consideration of inactivation processes 118
Spatial differentiation of the terrestrial and freshwater environment 120
Implementation 124
Definition of scenarios 126
Temporal modes of operation 127
Modelling the environmental fate in the terrestrial environment 130
Environmental fate modelling for different land covers 130
Compartments distinguished in the terrestrial environment 130
Dimensions of the terrestrial compartments 134
Definition of the phases of terrestrial compartments 137
Processes considered for the terrestrial compartments 139
Innovations as regards terrestrial compartments 139
Arable land compartment 148
Pasture compartment 148
(Semi-) natural ecosystem compartment 148
Non-vegetated land compartment 149
Impervious surface compartment 149
Glacier compartment 150
Environmental fate modelling for terrestrial plants 154
Exchange with air 155
Exchange with soil 162
Removal due to harvest and/or litterfall 169
Metabolism or degradation 170
Translocation within plants 171
Conclusions on how to address plants in a multimedia environmental fate model and innovations 172
Modelling the environmental fate in the aquatic environment 178
Environmental fate modelling of water bodies 178
Compartments distinguished 179
Dimensions of the aquatic compartments 179
Definition of the phases of aquatic compartments 181
Processes considered for the aquatic environment 184
Innovations as regards aquatic compartments 188
Environmental fate modelling for aquatic organisms 192
Exposure and impact assessment 194
Concentration in food 196
Considerations with respect to animal feed and ingested soil... 197
Computation of human exposure 199
Trade of food, consumption and the effective Intake Fraction 203
Consideration of trade 204
Assessing human consumption of food 205
The effective Intake Fraction 206
Impact assessment 209
Approach by Crettaz and co-workers 210
Dynamically computing the impact 216
Distinction of severity for cancer effects 217
Distinction of severity for non-cancer effects 218
Beta ED10 slope factors and physical impacts used in this study 219
Value choices and DALYs 219
Discussion on the magnitude of the assessed DALYs 226
Temporal delays 227
Valuation 230
Temporal aspects of monetary valuation and discounting 230
Applied concepts for economic valuation and values used 237
Valuation of human health-related impacts 238
Monetary valuation and latency 239
Impact of employing a different monetary valuation approach for morbidity effects 242
Monetary values used 245
Evaluation of results 248
Terminology 249
Validation, verification, evaluation 249
Uncertainty 250
Approaches for the evaluation of results 253
Minimum requirements towards uncertainty analysis of exposure assessments according to United States - Environmental Protection Agency (1997c) 254
Comparison with independent data 255
Scenario analysis 256
Sensitivity analysis of parameters 257
Probabilistic uncertainty assessment 259
Expert judgement 260
Followed approach 261
Qualitative uncertainty analysis according to United States - Environmental Protection Agency (1997c) 261
Comparison with independent data 274
Scenario analysis 285
Sensitivity analysis of the parameters 303
Concluding remarks on the evaluation of results 317
Case studies on emissions from single facilities 320
Definition of marginal emission-related case studies 320
Impacts due to inhalation exposure 323
Impacts due to ingestion exposure 329
Whole economy case study 344
Pan-European emission scenario for 1990 344
Tentative historic emission scenario and contamination increase in time 345
Impacts due to inhalation exposure 351
Impacts due to ingestion exposure 353
Concluding remarks 362
The assessment framework 362
General limitations of the assessment 370
Application of the assessment framework 372
Case studies 372
Remarks on the magnitude of the external costs 373
Quantitative evaluation of predicted concentrations 375
Applicability of the approach to other contexts 375
Outlook and closure 376
References 378
Appendix A Model formulation 426
Overall modelling approach of the environmental fate model 426
Steady-state solution 427
Dynamic solution 429
Dynamic solution until a certain fraction of the steady-state solution 432
Partitioning of substances and equilibrium distribution coefficients... 433
Bulk compartment-aqueous phase or solid phase equilibrium distribution coefficients 434
Bulk water-suspended matter or aqueous phase equilibrium distribution coefficients 436
Environmental fate process formulations 437
Degradation 438
Radioactive decay 438
Water soil erosion 439
Overland flow 441
Ice melt 443
Matrix leaching 444
Considering vertical substance transport in soils due to stochastic processes 445
Uptake by biota and removal 451
Discharge 452
Water circulation in large lakes 453
Sedimentation (or sediment deposition) in freshwater compartments 454
Resuspension of bottom sediment matter 455
Sediment burial 457
Diffusion from water body to sediment 459
Diffusion from sediment to water body 461
Volume calculations 461
Volume calculation: non-urban terrestrial compartments 462
Volume calculation: urban/built-up area 462
Volume calculation: water and sediment 463
Background concentration calculation 463
Exogenous input formulations 463
Direct emissions into soil or water 464
Atmospheric deposition - wet 464
Atmospheric deposition - dry 465
Wet atmospheric deposition considering preferential flow/leaching 465
Removal of atmospheric deposition due to harvest of exposed aboveground produce 467
Exposure assessment 476
Concentration conversion 477
Assessment of inhalation exposures 480
Performing dynamic exposure assessment when removal due to harvest is included in the environmental fate model 481
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'atmospheric deposition - aboveground exposed produce - humans' for the example of spinach 484
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'atmospheric deposition - forage/silage - cattle - humans' 486
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'arable land - aboveground protected produce - humans' for the example of cereals 486
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'arable land - aboveground exposed produce -humans' 487
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'arable land - belowground produce - humans' for the example of potato 487
Food concentration for the exposure pathways 'pasture/arable land - feed - milk cattle - humans' 488
Food concentration for the exposure pathways 'pasture/arable land - feed - beef and veal cattle - humans' 490
Food concentration for the different exposure pathways 'pasture (soil particles) - animal products - humans' 490
Food concentration for the exposure pathway 'freshwater - fish - humans' 491
Consideration of trade 491
Computation of the effective personal intake rate from food concentrations 493
Impact assessment 495
Monetary valuation 495
Appendix B Substance-independent data 496
Defining the geographical scope of the model 497
Spatial differentiation into zones 497
Definition of large lakes 508
Distinction of different compartments 509
Considerations with respect to depths of terrestrial compartments 510
Considerations with respect to soil depths of volatile substances 510
Dimensions and spatially invariant properties of freshwater compartments 516
Dimensions of lakes 516
Dimensions of streams 517
Dimensions of the freshwater compartment 519
Mass transfer coefficient at the water-sediment interface 519
Computation of spatially-resolved compartment properties and process rates 520
Spatially variable properties of soils 521
Hydrological data 527
Modelling erosion for different soil compartments 530
Components of the particle mass balance in surface freshwater bodies 533
Average surface temperature 552
Spatial differentiation for the exposure and impact assessment 553
Production-related data 553
Human consumption data 560
Further substance-independent data used in the exposure assessment 565
Appendix C Substance-dependent data 570
Substance properties influencing the environmental fate 570
Solid-water partitioning coefficient 570
Air-water partitioning coefficient 575
Air-solid partitioning coefficient 575
Substance properties influencing the exposure 576
Exposure-related data independent of the exposure assessment framework used 576
Data related to the exposure assessment framework according to United States - Environmental Protection Agency (1998) 577
Data related to the exposure assessment framework according to International Atomic Energy Agency (2001) 583
Monitoring data on media and food concentrations 585
Appendix D Symbols, indices and compartment acronyms used for parameter and process description 602
index 608

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.3.2006
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Arbeits- / Sozial- / Umweltmedizin
• Themenwelt: Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Prävention / Gesundheitsförderung
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Chemie
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Umwelttechnik / Biotechnologie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 0-08-046252-9 / 0080462529
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-046252-3 / 9780080462523