|
| | 
AMI has recently completed the development of the health risk assessment
model ACEME (Assessment of Chemical Exposure to Mercury Emissions) that
is suitable for stack emissions, such as those from coal-fired power
plants and waste incinerators. The ACEME model is a derivative of the
model ACEHWCF (Assessment of
Chemical Exposure for Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities) that fully
implements the recent guidelines from the U.S. EPA (
Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol for Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities
).
Major features of the ACEME risk assessment model include:
 | a multi-source, multi-pathway, multi-pollutant and multi-receptor model
that allows a comprehensive and accurate assessment of potential health risks
(both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic) from either a single facility or
several facilities in a cumulative/regional analysis, |
| realistic risk estimates through Monte Carlo probabilistic risk
assessment, |
| treatment of mercury in various phases (vapor, particle and
particle-bound), its deposition (wet and dry) and methylation into
methylmercury (MeHg), |
| interface with regulatory dispersion models, such as ISCST3 and AERMOD
for localized analysis (within 50 km of the facility) and CALPUFF for
long-range transport (beyond 50 km). An efficient algorithm has been
implemented to handle several pollutants (mercury and other toxics), receptors
and sources without incurring large amount of disk storage space, |
| In addition to inhalation risks, the multipathway exposure algorithms
recommended by the U.S. EPA are used to evaluate indirect (or
non-inhalation) risks from dermal absorption, ingestion of soil, drinking
water and food. Food ingestion includes consumption of vegetables, beef, pork,
milk, eggs, poultry, fish and mother's milk. To accommodate a wide variety of
local settings, the ACEME model can evaluate risks from food sources located
either onsite (homegrown) or offsite. |
For each receptor location, the ACEME model can:
| compute potential risks for
several EPA-recommended exposure scenarios (adult resident, child resident,
subsistence fisher, subsistence fisher child, subsistence farmer and subsistence
farmer child), |
| quantify noncancer health effects (both acute and chronic)
through hazard quotients or indices, |
| compute hazard quotients for
affected target organs, |
| tabulate predicted cancer risks and noncancer hazard indices both by pollutants and by emission sources, |
| perform
a probabilistic risk assessment to quantify the effects of uncertainty of
parameters (e.g., fate and transport parameters, exposure parameters, toxicity
data). With appropriate probability distributions of major parameters, the model
uses the Monte Carlo method to develop more realistic risk estimates than the
single point method. |
ACEME incorporates many user-friendly capabilities of the AMI-developed
ACE2588 model that has widely
been used, since 1991, in health risk assessment for hundreds of facilities in
California and elsewhere. The ACEME model should significantly save time and
costs for preparing the health risk assessments. It would also expedite their
review and approval by regulatory agencies.
Download the ACEME technical presentation
presented at the 8th Electric Utilities Environmental Conference, January 2005,
Tucson, AZ.
Download the ACEME/ACEHWCF
sample output for the U.S. EPA Region VI Mercury Exposure Test Case.
|
![[Company Logo Image]](images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
