Inhalation Exposure Risk During a Military Operation: A Risk Assessment Approach

摘要

Risk management decisions are a military decision-maker's primary responsibility and are based on risk assessments characterizing the probability and severity of the potential mission effect. Military deployment environmental hazard tolerances are presently based on point estimates of exposure risks using regulatory standards. The goal of this research is the evaluation of deterministic and probabilistic techniques in assessing and characterizing deployment exposure risks. This research estimated noncarcinogenic health risk from inhalation exposure to benzene during a military deployment, based on air monitoring conducted at 16 locations using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methods and guidelines. Ambient benzene concentrations -3.86 microngram/m3 (Tuzla), 8.27 microngram/m3 (1st Brigade), and 1.1 microngram/m3 (2nd Brigade) - were similar to U.S. urban areas. Hazard quotients derived using EPA's Reasonable Maximum Exposure (RME) procedures and Monte Carlo simulations for deployed occupational cohorts are compared. An RfDi calculated by time-weighting EPA's reference concentration and the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists' Threshold Limit Value is proposed for military deployment risk assessment.