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RESEARCH NEEDS FOR SCALING UP INDOOR SINK EFFECT MODELS
Citation:
Howard*, E M. AND X. Liu. RESEARCH NEEDS FOR SCALING UP INDOOR SINK EFFECT MODELS. Presented at A&WMA Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, June 22 - 25, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The events of 11 September 2001 underscored the need to study the vulnerability of buildings to weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological, physical, and radiological agents. Should these agents be released inside a building, they would interact with interior surfaces, building materials, and furnishings, and could remain for a long period in an indoor environment. Studies have shown that building materials, such as wallboard, flooring, carpet, acoustic tile, concrete, and other products, can act as a significant sink for various chemicals. Predicting the concentration of chemicals indoors, is made more complex by the processes of adsorption and desorption. These processes depend on the properties of pollutants and materials, and environmental conditions. In order for the Environmental Protection Agency to protect against, and respond to, any future terrorist attacks, research is needed to develop and extend existing sink effect models and incorporate them into exposure models to predict concentrations of building contaminants resulting from a terrorist attack or indoor building decontamination and their impact on indoor air quality. This paper provides background information on the state of the art in sink modeling for prediction of chemical concentrations in buildings, and research needs for an EPA program to improve the ability of models developed in test chambers to predict air concentrations of toxic industrial compounds and other volatile organic compounds in real buildings.