The Use of Landscape Chemical Cycles for Indexing the Health Risks of Toxic Elements and Radionuclides

Thomas E. McKone, William E. Kastenberg and David Okrent

Risk Analysis, 1983, vol. 3, issue 3, 189-205

Abstract: Analysis of energy‐system impacts requires quantifications of short‐ and long‐term local, regional, and global modifications. This paper describes and illustrates an approach for assessing long‐term health risks due to dispersion of naturally occurring radionuclide series and chemical toxins by normal and altered landscape‐chemical cycles. Health hazards are expressed as dose factors which convert environmental concentrations into a corresponding dose field (organ doses in rad for radionuclides; daily intake for toxic elements). The dose field is translated into a population health risk. The external environment is modelled by considering the manner in which elements are distributed and mobilized within the earth system. The landscape prism is presented as a tool for visualizing and mapping toxic material cycles near the crustal surface. An approach is provided for dividing the landscape into a set of compartments consistent with patterns of element circulation observed in the global environment. We investigate the response of regional landscapes to increases of 238U, 226Ra, arsenic and lead in soil and groundwater. It is found that each decay series or element imposes a hazard by its behavior in the total environment that cannot be quantified by a simple measure of toxicity.

Date: 1983
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:3:y:1983:i:3:p:189-205

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