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EFFECTS OF PATHOGENIC AND TOXIC MATERIALS TRANSPORTED VIA COOLING DEVICE DRIFT. VOLUME 2. APPENDICES
Citation:
Freudenthal, H., J. Rubenstein, AND A. Uzzo. EFFECTS OF PATHOGENIC AND TOXIC MATERIALS TRANSPORTED VIA COOLING DEVICE DRIFT. VOLUME 2. APPENDICES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-79/251B.
Description:
The report describes a mathematical model that predicts the percent of the population affected by a pathogen or toxic substance emitted in a cooling tower plume, and gives specific applications of the model. Eighty-five pathogens (or diseases) are cataloged as potentially occurring in U.S. waters, but there is insufficient data to predict the probability of occurrence or relate their occurrence to public health, population, or pollution. Sixty-five toxic substances are cataloged as potentially occurring in U.S. waters, but the actual number is probably many times the EPA-supplied list. Toxic concentrations to persons, animals, and plants are known for only a few of the chemicals: most toxic levels can be only inferred from animal studies. In the population as a whole, the epidemiological impact of a pathogen is a function of age, sex distribution, racial (genetic) distribution, general health and well-being, prior exposure, and immunological deficiency states. While cooling device drift may not be directly responsible for epidemics, it may potentiate the burden in an already weakened population, raising a segment of the population into the clinical state. The effect of toxic substances is difficult to evaluate because of inadequate data on humans. The effect is a function of concentration in susceptible tissue, and is much less dependent than pathogens on host resistance.