Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS{reg_sign}): Exposure pathway and human health impact assessment models

The Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) provides physics-based models for human health risk assessment for radioactive and hazardous pollutants. MEPAS analyzes pollutant behavior in various media (air, soil, groundwater and surface water) and estimates transport through and between media and exposure and impacts to the environment, to the maximum individual, and to populations. MEPAS includes 25 exposure pathway models, a database with information on more than 650 contaminants, and a sensitivity module that allows for uncertainty analysis. Four major transport pathways are considered in MEPAS: groundwater, overland, surface water, and atmospheric. This report describes the exposure pathway and health impact assessment component of MEPAS, which provides an estimate of health impacts to selected individuals and populations from exposure to pollutants. The exposure pathway analysis starts with pollutant concentration in a transport medium and estimates the average daily dose to exposed individuals from contact with the transport medium or a secondary medium contaminated by the transport medium. The average daily dose is then used to estimate a measure of health impact appropriate to the type of pollutant considered. Discussions of the exposure pathway models include the assumptions and equations used to convert the transport medium concentrations to exposure medium concentrations. The discussion for a given exposure pathway defines the transport pathways leading to the exposure, the special processes considered in determining the pollutant concentration in the exposure medium, and the exposure model used to estimate the average daily dose. Models for the exposure pathway and health impact assessments require definition of several parameters. A summary of the notation used for these parameters is provided