File: ABSTRACT.TXT


                       MMSOILS Model System Abstract


               Center for Exposure Assessment Modeling (CEAM)
     National Exposure Research Laboratory - Ecosystems Research Division
                  Office of Research and Development (ORD)
               U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)
                          960 College Station Road
                         Athens, Georgia 30605-2700

                                706/355-8400



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                                  Summary

The document "MMSOILS: Multimedia Contaminant Fate, Transport, and Exposure
Model, Documentation and User's Manual Version 4.0" describes the methodology
used by MMSOILS for estimating the human exposure and health risk associated
with releases of contamination from hazardous waste sites.  The methodology
consists of a multimedia model that addresses the transport of a chemical in
groundwater, surface water, soil erosion, the atmosphere, and accumulation in
the foodchain.  The human exposure pathways considered in the methodology
include:  soil ingestion, air inhalation of volatiles and particulates,
dermal contact, ingestion of drinking water, consumption of fish, consumption
of plants grown in contaminated soil, and consumption of animals grazing on
contaminated pasture.  For multimedia exposures, the methodology provides
estimates of human exposure through individual pathways and combined exposure
through all pathways considered.  The risk associated with the total exposure
dose is calculated based on chemical-specific toxicity data.

The methodology is intended for use as a screening tool.  It is critical that
the results are interpreted in the appropriate framework.  The intended use
of the exposure assessment tool is for screening and relative comparison of
different waste sites, remediation activities, and hazard evaluation.  The
methodology can be used to provide an estimate of health risks for a specific
site.  Since the uncertainty of the estimated risk may be quite large
(depending on the site characteristics and available data), MMSOILS addresses
these uncertainties via Monte Carlo analysis.

                                Documentation

The MMSOILS User's Manual is available in the following (binary, non-ASCII)
files; *.EPS (Encapsulated Post Script), *.WP6 (WordPerfect 6.x), *.DOC
(MicroSoft Word 6.0), *.XLS (MicroSoft Excel); and the following (non-binary,
ASCII) files; *.TXT in the DOCUMENT sub-directory.  Refer to file READ.ME in
the README sub-directory for further information on the storage format and
printing requirements of these files.

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