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1. ATSDR > Public Health Assessments & Consultations

PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE
YIGO, GUAM

APPENDIX A: EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL IRP SITES AT ANDERSON AFB

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY

Background Level:

A typical or average level of a chemical in the environment. Background often refers to naturally occurring or uncontaminated levels.

Biota:

Plants or animals. Refers to those organisms collected and hunted for food.

Carcinogen:

Any substance that may produce cancer.

Comparison Values:

Estimated contaminant concentrations in specific media that are not likely to cause adverse health effects, given a standard daily ingestion rate and standard body weight. The comparison values are calculated from the scientific literature available on a contaminant's exposure and health effects.

Concentration:

The amount of one substance dissolved or contained in a given amount of another. For example, sea water contains a higher concentration of salt than fresh water.

Contaminant:

Any substance or material that enters a system where it is not normally found or found in greater concentrations than background levels.

Dose:

The amount of substance to which a person is exposed. Dose often takes body weight into account.

Environmental contamination:

The presence of hazardous substances in the environment. From the public health perspective, environmental contamination is addressed when it potentially affects the health and quality of life of people living and working near the contamination.

EPA's Reference Dose (RfD):

An estimate of the daily exposure to a contaminant unlikely to cause non-carcinogenic adverse health effects over a lifetime of exposure. Like ATSDR's MRL, EPA's RfD is a dose expressed in mg/kg/day.

Exposure:

Contact with a chemical by swallowing, by breathing, or by direct contact (such as through the skin or eyes). Exposure may be short term (acute) or long term (chronic).

Hazard:

A source of risk that does not necessarily imply potential for occurrence. A hazard produces risk only if an exposure pathway exists, and if exposures create the possibility of adverse consequences.

Indeterminate Public Health Hazard:

The designation given to sites for which no conclusions about public health hazards can be made because data are lacking.

Ingestion:

Swallowing (such as eating or drinking). Chemicals can get in or on food, drink, utensils, cigarettes, or hands where they can be ingested. After ingestion, chemicals can be absorbed into the blood and distributed throughout the body.

Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs):

MCLs are legal drinking water quality standards defined by the Safe Drinking Water Act. MCLs represent contaminant concentrations in drinking water that someone could be exposed to on a daily basis over a life time without adverse health effects.

Media:

Soil, water, air, plants, animals, or any other parts of the environment that can contain contaminants.

Minimal Risk Level (MRL):

An MRL is defined as an estimate of daily human exposure to a substance that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of adverse effects (noncancer) over a specified duration of exposure. MRLs are derived when reliable and sufficient data exist to identify the target organ(s) of effect or the most sensitive health effect(s) for a specific duration via a given route of exposure. MRLs are based on noncancer health effects only. MRLs can be derived for acute, intermediate and chronic duration exposures by the inhalation and oral routes.

National Priorities List (NPL):

EPA's listing of sites that have undergone preliminary assessment and site inspection to determine which locations pose an immediate threat to persons living or working near the release. These sites are most in need of cleanup.

No Apparent Public Health Hazard:

The designation given to sites where human exposure to contaminated media is occurring or has occurred in the past, but the exposure is below a level of health hazard.

Plume:

An area of chemicals in a particular medium, such as air or groundwater, moving away from its source in a long band or column. A plume can be a column of smoke from a chimney or chemicals moving with groundwater.

Potentially Exposed:

The condition where valid information, usually analytical environmental data, indicates the presence of contaminant(s) of a public health concern in one or more environmental media contacting humans (e.g., air, drinking water, soil, food chain, surface water), and there is evidence that some of those persons may have an identified route(s) of exposure (e.g., drinking contaminated water, breathing contaminated air, having contact with contaminated soil, or eating contaminated food).

Public Health Assessment:

The evaluation of data and information on the release of hazardous substances into the environment in order to assess any current or future impact on public health, develop health advisories or other recommendations, and identify studies or actions needed to evaluate and mitigate or prevent human health effects; also, the document resulting from that evaluation.

Public Health Hazard:

Sites that pose a public health hazard as the result of long-term exposures to hazardous substances.

Reference Concentration (RfC):

A concentration in air expected to be associated with no deleterious health effects over a lifetime of exposure, assuming default body weights and inhalation rates.

Risk:

The probability that something will cause injury, combined with the potential severity of that injury.

Route of Exposure:

The path in which a person may contact a chemical substance. For example, drinking (ingestion) and bathing (skin contact) are two different routes of exposure to contaminants that may be found in water.

Volatile organic compound (VOC):

Substance containing carbon and different proportions of other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, sulfur, or nitrogen; these substances easily become vapors or gases. A significant number of the VOCs are commonly used as solvents (e.g., paint thinners, lacquer thinner, degreasers, dry cleaning fluids).

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