Potential environmental impact component-specific

The Remedial Action Priority System (RAPS) and Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) are different names for an objective exposure pathway evaluation system developed by Pacific Northwest Laboratory to rank chemical and radioactive releases according to their potential human health impacts. Constituent migration and impact are simulated using air, groundwater, overland, surface water, and exposure components based on standard assessment principles and techniques. A shell allows interactive description of the environmental problem to be evaluated, defines required data in the form of problem-specific worksheets, and allows data input. The assessment methodology uses an extensive constituent database as a consistent source of chemical, physical, and health-related parameters. 

One objective of our environmental tobacco smoke research program is to assess the impact of ETS on indoor air. Due to the chemical complexity, dynamics, and extreme dilution of ETS in indoor air, and the complexity of the indoor air background, it is impossible to ascertain the concentration level of ETS per se. Attempts are being made to put ETS concentrations into perspective by measuring selected ETS components which can then be used as markers or tracers for ETS as a whole. In this regard, any potential tracer should possess the following attributes (1) it should be unique to or at least highly specific for tobacco smoke (2) it should be in sufficient... 

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