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

Glossary

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 EPA’s 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 Kuwait’s economy through the destruction of the country’s 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.


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