TAB A - Acronym Listing/Glossary
This TAB provides a listing of acronyms found in this report. Additionally, the Glossary section provides definitions for selected technical terms that are not found in common usage.
Acronyms
ACGIH................................................................................................
American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists ARCENT.................................................................................................................................................. Army Central Command AVHRR...................................................................................................................... Advanced Very-High Resolution Radiometer CBDCOM.......................................................................................................................... Chemical Biological Defense Command USACHPPM .................................................................United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine CO......................................................................................................................................................................Carbon Monoxide CO2........................................................................................................................................................................Carbon Dioxide CRUR............................................................................................................................... Center for the Research of Unit Records DIA..................................................................................................................................................... Defense Intelligence Agency DOD........................................................................................................................................................... Department of Defense FAE................................................................................................................................................................... Fuel Air Explosion FSTC................................................................................................................................. Foreign Service and Technology Center GAO...................................................................................................................................................... General Accounting Office GIS................................................................................................................................................. Geographic Information System HI.............................................................................................................................................................................. Hazard Index HRA.......................................................................................................................................................... Health Risk Assessment H2S...................................................................................................................................................................... Hydrogen Sulfide IAD....................................................................................................................................... Investigation and Analysis Directorate IMO.......................................................................................................................................... International Maritime Organization KOC.............................................................................................................................................................. Kuwait Oil Company Km.................................................................................................................................................................................. Kilometer KNPC............................................................................................................................... Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation KPC................................................................................................................................................ Kuwait Petroleum Corporation LPG.......................................................................................................................................................... Liquefied Petroleum Gas MEDCOM........................................................................................................................................................ Medical Command mg/m3................................................................................................................................................... Milligrams per Cubic Meter MEPA............................................................................. Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration (Saudi Arabia) MOPP..................................................................................................................................... Mission Oriented Protective Posture NAAQS............................................................................................................................. National Ambient Air Quality Standards NASA.................................................................................................................... National Aeronautics and Space Administration NIOSH............................................................................................................. National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health NOAA............................................................................................................... National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOx.................................................................................................................................................................... Oxide of Nitrogen O3 ........................................................................................................................................................................................Ozone ODS/DS............................................................................................................................... Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm OPEC................................................................................................................................ Organization of Oil Producing Countries OSAGWI........................................................................................................ Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses OSHA..................................................................................................................... Occupational Safety and Health Administration OTA............................................................................................................................................ Office of Technology Assessment PAH........................................................................................................................................... Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon PEL...................................................................................................................................................... Permissible Exposure Level PM10.............................................................................................................. Particulate Matter Less Than 10 Microns in Diameter PPB....................................................................................................................................................................... Parts Per Billion PPE.................................................................................................................................................. Personal Protective Equipment PPM..................................................................................................................................................................... Parts Per Million PSI............................................................................................................................................................ Pounds Per Square Inch REL................................................................................................................................................ Recommended Exposure Level RfD........................................................................................................................................................................ Reference Dose SO2.......................................................................................................................................................................... Sulfur Dioxide SOx......................................................................................................................................................................... Oxide of Sulfur SVOC......................................................................................................................................... Semi-volatile Organic Compound TLV.............................................................................................................................................................. Threshold Limit Value TM...................................................................................................................................................................... Thematic Mapper TSP...................................................................................................................................................... Total Suspended Particulate m g/m3................................................................................................................................................. Microgram per Cubic Meter UIC............................................................................................................................................................ Unit Identification Code UN.......................................................................................................................................................................... United Nations UNEP...................................................................................................... United Nations Environment Programme General Council US EPA.................................................................................................................. United States Environmental Protection Agency USAEHA......................................................................................................... United States Army Environmental Hygiene Agency USIAAT.................................................................................................... United States Interagency Air Quality Assessment Team VOC.................................................................................................................................................... Volatile Organic Compound WHO..................................................................................................................................................... World Health Organization WMO....................................................................................................................................... World Meteorological Organization |
Air Quality Standards:
US EPA uses six "criteria pollutants" as indicators of air quality, and has established for each of them a maximum concentration above which adverse effects on human health may occur. These threshold concentrations are called National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The six pollutants are ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and lead.
Alkane:
The homologous group of linear saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having the general formula C(n)H(2n+2). Alkanes can be straight chains, branched chains, or ring structures. Also referred to as paraffins.
Asthma:
Chronic respiratory system disorder characterized by wheezing, coughing, and difficulty in breathing.
Barrel of Oil (BBL):
"BBL" means one stock tank barrel of oil or natural gas liquids, with oil or natural gas liquids volumes expressed in standard 42 US gallon barrels or 34.972 Imperial gallon barrels;
Bronchitis:
An inflammation of the mucous lining of the bronchial tubes.
Carcinogenic:
A compound or material capable of producing cancer.
Chronic Reference Dose:
An estimate of a daily exposure level for the human population, including sensitive sub-populations, that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime. Chronic reference doses are developed to be protective for long-term exposure to a compound (seven years to lifetime).
Coalition Forces:
Multi-national military force assembled and aligned to remove the occupation forces of the Republic of Iraq from Kuwait.
Dose:
The amount of a substance available for interaction with metabolic processes or biologically significant receptors after crossing the outer boundary of an organism. Dose is a function of the concentration of the substance to which a receptor is exposed and the duration of the exposure. The potential dose is the amount ingested, inhaled, or applied to the skin. The applied dose is the amount of a substance presented to an absorption barrier and available for absorption (although not necessarily having yet crossed the outer boundary of the organism). The absorbed dose is the amount crossing a specific absorption barrier (e.g., the exchange boundaries of skin, lung and digestive tract) through uptake processes. Internal dose is a more general term denoting the amount absorbed without respect to specific absorption barriers or exchange boundaries. The amount of the chemical available for interaction by any particular organ or cell is termed the delivered dose for that organ or cell.
Excess Cancer Risk:
The probably that an individual will acquire cancer over a lifetime of exposure. US EPA has determined the acceptable range of excess cancer to be one excess cancer in a population of 10,000 to one excess cancer in a population of 1,000,000, under conditions of exposure). A risk level, or probability of one in 1,000,000 that an individual could develop cancer due to an exposure to potential carcinogens at a site, is often used as the point of departure by regulatory agencies to trigger action.
Exposure:
Contact with a chemical or physical agent. Exposure is quantified as the concentration of the agent in the medium in contact integrated over the time duration of that contact.
Exposure Assessment:
The determination or estimation (qualitative or quantitative) of the magnitude, frequency, duration, route, and extent (number of people) of exposure to a chemical.
Exposure Pathways:
An exposure pathway describes the course a contaminant takes from the source to the exposed individual. It generally consists of four elements: 1) source of chemical release; 2) receiving/transport medium (i.e., air, soil, water); 3) point of potential contact; and 4) exposure route (i.e., inhalation, ingestion, dermal contact).
Hazard Index:
The sum of more than one hazard quotient for multiple substances and/or multiple exposure pathways. The Hazard Index is calculated separately for chronic, sub-chronic and shorter duration exposures.
Hazard Quotient:
The ratio of a single substance exposure level over a specified time period (e.g., sub-chronic) to a reference dose for that substance derived from a similar exposure period.
Heavy Metals:
Metallic elements with high atomic weights, e.g., mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, and lead. They can cause damage living organisms at very low concentrations and tend to accumulate in the food chain.
Health Risk and/or Assessment:
A qualitative or quantitative evaluation of the environmental health risk resulting from exposure to a chemical or physical agent (pollutant); combines exposure assessment results with toxicity assessment results to estimate risk.
Hydrogen Sulfide:
Hydrogen sulfide is a highly flammable, heavier-than-air gas present in crude oil that is highly toxic and is normally removed during the refining process.
Intake Rate:
The rate by which a substance crosses the outer boundary of an organism without passing an absorption barrier, e.g., through ingestion or inhalation.
Lofting:
The isolation of the pollutant plume aloft. This occurs when the plume is emitted or disperses to a position above a stable layer or temperature inversion lid that inhibits downward dispersion and isolates the plume from lower layers near the ground.
Marrat Structure:
A regional oil bearing geologic structure at a depth of 12,000 to 14,000 feet below the surface of the earth.
Modeling:
Use of mathematical methods to simulate processes to predict results. In the context of exposure assessment, any mathematical method describing a physical system used to predict the concentration of specific chemicals as a function of space and time subject to transport, intermedia transfer, storage, and degradation in the environment.
Monitoring Data:
Measuring concentrations of substances in environmental media or in human or other biological tissues.
Organics:
A term used to refer to chemical compounds made from carbon molecules. These compounds may be natural materials (such as animal or plant sources) or man-made materials (such as synthetic organics).
Oxide:
A binary chemical compound in which oxygen is combined with a metal or nonmetal.
Pathway:
The physical route a chemical or pollutant takes from the source to the organism exposed.
Plume:
The way polluted air extends downwind from the pollution source (for example: smoke from a smokestack as it drifts downwind in the atmosphere).
Pollutant:
An environmental contaminant.
Reference Dose:
The US EPAs preferred toxicity value for evaluating non-carcinogenic effects resulting from exposures at Superfund sites. See specific entries for chronic and sub-chronic reference dose.
Risk:
The probability that an undesirable outcome will occur. Risk in this context is defined in terms of the probability of a particular adverse effect. It has the dimensions of frequency or incidence (1 in 1,000,000, for example) and is coupled to an exposure estimate. The actual risk statement may be made in the form of the probability of an outcome associated with a unit exposure. For example, there is a lifetime "risk" of 2.5 excess cancers in 10,000 from an exposure to 1 part per million of a chemical (unspecified) in community air breathed 24 hours a day, every day for 70 years.
Sampling Data:
A representative portion of the whole. Exposure-related measurements are usually samples of environmental or ambient media, exposures of a small subset of a population for a short time, or biological samples, all for the purpose of inferring the nature and quality of parameters important to evaluating exposure.
Scorched Earth Policy:
The plan adopted by Iraq to insure the demise of Kuwaits economy through the destruction of the countrys oil infrastructure. The plan was also designed to obtain an advantage militarily against the Coalition forces.
Shamal Winds:
A strong, hot, dry persistent northwest wind, that occurs in Kuwait most often in summer and frequently is accompanied by dust storms, especially in the southern part of the country.
Silicosis:
A fibrogenic pneumoconiosis caused by inhaling crystalline-free silica (quartz) dust; characterized by discrete nodular pulmonary fibrosis and, in more advanced stages, by conglomerate fibrosis and respiratory impairment.
Slope factor:
Biological system response per unit intake of a chemical over a lifetime. The slope factor is used to estimate an upper-bound probability of an individual developing cancer as a result of a lifetime of exposure to a particular level of a potential carcinogen.
Sour Crude:
Kuwaiti crude oil containing as much as 20 to 30 ppm of hydrogen sulfide.
Sub-Chronic Reference Dose:
An estimate of a daily exposure level for the general population,including sensitive sub-populations, that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a portion of a lifetime (14 days to 2 years).
Temperature Inversion:
A condition in which a dense substance lies over a less dense substance. A temperature inversion causes the temperature to increase with height. Such inversions occur locally in very still air and tend to be stable. When the air is especially still at times like these, the cooler air, because of its greater density, settles close to the ground, and the warmer air forms a blanket above it in a temperature inversion. Pollutants in the air, such as smoke and soot, are trapped in this layer.
Troop Unit:
An organization of troops, aircraft, or ships which is intended to serve as a single unit in combat. Any military element whose structure is prescribed by competent authority, such as a table of organization and equipment; specifically, part of an organization. An organization title of a subdivision of a group in a task force. With regard to reserve components of the Armed Forces, denotes a Selected Reserve unit organized, equipped and trained for mobilization to serve on active duty as a unit or to augment or be augmented by another unit.
Volatile:
A compound capable of vaporizing or evaporating quickly at relatively low temperatures.
Well Head:
A configuration of valves, gates, and piping designed to control the flow of oil from an oil well.
| First Page | Prev Page | Next Page |