An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

CEM-Consumer Exposure Model Download and Install Instructions

The CEM installation program has been compressed into a zip file. To install CEM on your system, complete the following instructions:

To use CEM, you will need to save three program files to your computer.  These include a Microsoft Access database file, which is the main CEM program file, and two “executable files” that support the main program file.  You will not use the executable files directly, but they must be present in the same folder location as the main CEM program file for the model to function.

The main program file and the executable files are provided together in a “zip” file (i.e., a file format commonly used for compression and transmission of large computer files). You will need a file compression/archival utility to open the zip file. Several free compression utilities are available, and many new computers come with a compression utility pre-installed.  Examples of common compression utilities include WinZip and 7-Zip.  You must “unzip” the CEM files before the first use. CEM will not run if you attempt to open and use it from within the zip file (i.e., without unzipping the CEM files). The CEM files may be unzipped to a computer hard drive, network folder, or other storage location. For best performance, it is recommended to unzip CEM to your computer hard drive.  Follow the steps below to download, unzip, and open CEM.

  • Download zip file titled “CEM version 2.1 (ZIP)(267 MB) ” to your hard drive or other storage location (see above). You may need to copy or move the file from “downloads” into the folder location of your choice.
  • Right click on file and select “Extract All” or “Extract to here” or similar command. The specific command to unzip/extract the file may differ depending on which file compression utility you use (e.g., WinZip or 7-zip).
  • Click “Extract”. A new folder will appear where you downloaded the original zip file.
  • Double click the folder to open it and double click the main CEM file titled “CEM Version 2.1.accdb”.
    • This folder also includes a copy of this User Guide and two executable files (CEM_NFFF_v25.exe and SVOC10_v7.exe).
  • The first time you open the main CEM file, Windows security will disable the model code. You must click “Enable Content” near the menu bar at the top of the screen to enable the model programming to run.
  • At the top right of the screen, to the right of the CEM logo, select “View a Saved Analysis” or “New Analysis” to begin.