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Exposure Assessment During a Chemical Attack: Livestock Carcass Management
Citation:
Chattopadhyay, S. Exposure Assessment During a Chemical Attack: Livestock Carcass Management. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-18/109, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This report provides information to compare management options and support decision-making in the event of a chemical emergency and recommends alternatives to mitigate potential hazards to human health, livestock, and the environment. It provides a scientifically based understanding of the potential environmental releases and exposure pathways for various treatments and disposal options, identifies and critically evaluates the potential relative contribution of specific exposure pathways based on chemicals of concern, site settings, and steps in carcass management processes. Livestock could be contaminated with chemicals due to intentional or unintentional events. The emergency could expose livestock to lethal or sublethal levels of chemical contamination and could affect small to very large numbers of animals. This assessment examines how human and ecological exposures from carcass management would vary in response to various levels of contamination, number and size of carcasses, and other factors. This assessment presents scientifically-based livestock carcass management decisions to aid the first responders, federal agencies, state and local practitioners. It also provides information to support choices about short- and long-term mitigation measures to minimize or eliminate specific exposure pathways during chemical emergencies..
Description:
Report--Exposure estimates were performed to rank the various livestock carcass management options relative to one another for a hypothetical site and mortality scenario from a potential chemical attack or chemical contamination emergencies. A tiered approach was effective to rank possible releases and exposures to chemicals under a set of standardized environmental conditions, scale of mortality, and carcass management practices.