Assessment of Potential for Acute Inhalation Impacts from Oil Spills. H. M. Hartmann, Y.-S. Chang, and J. P. Butler, Argonne National Laboratory
As a result of transporting and using large quantities of oil, spills of crude oil and refined oil products are relatively common events. Large-volume spills occur with a lower frequency, but the past occurrence of large spills has led to requirements that producers, transporters, and refiners of oil conduct extensive emergency planning for such spills. Oil is a complex mixture of hundreds of substances, mainly hydrocarbons. The substances have varying toxicities and volatilities. The most acutely toxic substances are single-aromatic-ring compounds (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylene) and aliphatic compounds (e.g., hexane, heptane). These substances are also volatile.
This presentation discusses a method to estimate the downwind "impact distances" for oil spills. For the most acutely toxic oil components, the impact distance is the downwind distance from the spill boundary within which there is a potential for serious adverse health impacts to result from the inhalation of contaminants emitted from spilled oil. The weight percent of the toxic components varies with differing oil sources and degree of refining, and is a major factor in determining the impact distance for each substance. Differences in impact distances are summarized for various crude oil types and refined oil products. The adequacy of the toxicological data used to establish guideline levels for acute exposure is discussed.
Work supported by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management under interagency agreement, through U.S. Department of Energy contract W-31-109-Eng-38.
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