The purpose of this study was to apply the Combined Index (Con, a hazard screening tool, developed by Dr. Debra Forman of EPA Region III Office of Air Radiation and Toxics Division, to the 1994 and 1995 Oregon Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) for pollution prevention and facility targeting analysis....
In 1990, the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments authorized the regulation of 188 hazardous air pollutants (HAP). Exposure to HAPs at sufficient concentrations and durations can increase both cancer and serious adverse non-carcinogenic effects. The purpose of this study was to conduct a human health risk assessment using data of...
Asthma prevalence in children under age 18 has risen steadily in the U.S. since the mid-1970s. Most researchers attribute this increase to air pollutants, socioeconomic status or urban residence. This study examined asthma prevalence in Lane County, Oregon, using children's asthma hospital discharges (1990-1995), and data from 10 of 16...
In 1992, hundreds of buildings in Taiwan were discovered to have ⁶⁰Co contamination in the structural rebar. The contamination resulted from improper handling of ⁶⁰Co contaminated scrap metal in 1982 and 1983 that was subsequently recycled and used throughout Taiwan. One example was the Hsin-hsin Kindergarten (HHK) school which had...
Biohazardous waste refers to wastes that are potentially infectious to humans, as well as wastes from animal or plant research that could be potentially infectious to these organisms, or could alter their genetic selection process. Research resulting in generation of biohazardous waste is typically conducted at large, research-based universities. The...
The Mt. Scott watershed in northern Clackamas County, Oregon is an urban watershed that lies inside the Portland metropolitan urban growth boundary. Urbanization of the watershed began in the early 1970s and has recently accelerated. A landscape level analysis of the urbanization process was combined with the results of a...
Two research studies at the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site and Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) explore the quantitative relationship between surface contamination, airborne radioactivity, worker intakes, and subsequent dose. In the first study, resuspension factors are developed and evaluated at the U.S. Department of Energy's (U.S. DOE)...
With congressional passage of the BEACH Act in October of 2000, Coastal and Great Lakes states were mandated to assess coastal recreation waters for the application of ambient water quality standards. This research encompasses two components involved in applying the BEACH Act statues to Oregon. The first component was to...
In 1994, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) implemented a new audit tool developed by the US Department of Defense (DOD) called "The Environmental Assessment and Management Guide" (TEAM Guide). The TEAM Guide uses an extensive menu of checklists to determine compliance. In November 1994, the USACE Portland District...
Two methods of radiation dose assessment were evaluated for the Cs-137 in soil ⇒ leafy vegetable ⇒ human consumption exposure pathway at three fictitious contaminated sites in California, Colorado, and Florida. An annual dose equation was developed and per USEPA risk assessment guidelines, traditional, single point annual dose estimates were...