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 |
CO | carbon monoxide |
CO2 | carbon dioxide |
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CURR | Center for Unit Record Research |
DIA | Defense Intelligence Agency |
DoD | Department of Defense |
FAE | Fuel Air Explosive |
FSTC | Foreign Science and Technology Center |
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GAO | General Accounting Office |
GIS | Geographic Information System |
HI | Hazard Index |
HRA | Health Risk Assessment |
H2S | Hydrogen Sulfide |
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IMO | International Maritime Organization |
KOC | Kuwait Oil Company |
km | kilometer |
KNPC | Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation |
KPC | Kuwait Petroleum Corporation |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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PPE | Personal Protective Equipment |
PPM | parts per million |
PSI | pounds per square inch |
REL | recommended exposure level |
RfD | reference dose |
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SBCCOM | Soldier and Biological Chemical Command |
SO2 | sulfur dioxide |
SVOC | semi-volatile organic compound |
TLV | threshold limit value |
TSP | total suspended particulate |
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m g/m3 | Microgram per Cubic Meter |
UIC | Unit Identification Code |
UN | United Nations |
UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme General Council |
USACHPPM | United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine |
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USAEHA | United States Army Environmental Hygiene Agency |
USCENTCOM | United States Central Command |
US EPA | United States Environmental Protection Agency |
USIAAT | United States Interagency Air Quality Assessment Team |
VOC | volatile organic compound |
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WHO | World Health Organization |
WMO | World Meteorological Organization |
Air quality standards | Six "criteria pollutants" (ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and lead) US EPA uses to indicate air quality. US EPA 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. |
Alkanes | The homologous group of linear saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having the general formula C(n)H(2n+2). Alkanes can be straight or branched chains or ring structures. Also called paraffins. |
Asthma | Chronic respiratory system disorder characterized by wheezing, coughing, and difficulty in breathing. |
Barrel of Oil (BBL) | One stock tank barrel of oil or natural gas liquids, with 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. |
Carcinogen | A compound or material capable of producing cancer. |
Chronic Reference Dose | An estimated daily exposure level for the human population, including sensitive sub-populations, likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects over the long term (seven years to a 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
an organisms outer boundary. Dose is a function of the concentration of the
substance to which a receptor is exposed and exposure duration. |
Excess Cancer Risk | The probability an individual will acquire cancer over a lifetime of exposure. US EPA has determined the acceptable range of excess cancer as one in a population of 10,000 to one in a population of 1,000,000 under conditions of exposure. Regulatory agencies often use a risk level, or probability of one in 1,000,000 an individual could develop cancer due to an exposure to potential carcinogens at a site, as the point of departure to trigger action. |
Exposure | Contact with a chemical or physical agent, quantified as the agents concentration 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 | The course a contaminant takes from the source to the exposed person, generally consisting of four elements: 1) source of chemical release; 2) receiving and/or transporting medium (e.g., air, soil, water); 3) point of potential contact; and 4) exposure route (e.g., inhalation, ingestion, dermal contact). |
Hazard Index | The sum of more than one hazard quotient for several substances and/or several exposure pathways, 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 to living organisms at very low concentrations and tend to accumulate in the food chain. |
Health Risk 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 | A highly toxic, highly flammable, heavier-than-air gas present in crude oil; normally removed during the refining process. |
Intake Rate | The rate by which a substance crosses an organisms outer boundary without passing an absorption barrier, e.g., through ingestion or inhalation. |
Lofting | The isolation of a pollutant plume aloft, occurring 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 12,000 to 14,000 feet deep below the earths surface. |
Modeling | Using 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. |
Mission Oriented Protective Posture | Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) is a flexible system used to direct the wearing of chemical protective garments and mask a system that balances mission requirements with the chemical warfare agent threat. Wearing chemical protective garments and mask provides soldiers protection against most know chemical warfare agents, biological agents, and toxins. At MOPP Level 0 soldiers carry their protective mask while their remaining MOPP gear must be readily available (e.g., within the work area, fighting position, living space, etc.). At MOPP Level 1, soldiers wear their overgarment and carry the rest of their MOPP gear. At MOPP Level 2, soldiers wear their overgarment and overboots while carrying the mask with hood and gloves. At MOPP Level 3, soldiers wear their overgarment, overboots, and mask with hood, but not the gloves. At MOPP Level 4, soldiers wear all their MOPP gear. Commanders can raise or lower the amount of protection through five levels of MOPP. In addition, commanders, under certain situations, can exercise a mask-only option. |
Monitoring Data | Measured concentrations of substances in environmental media or in human or other biological tissues. |
Organics | Chemical compounds made from molecules containing carbon, whether natural materials (e.g., from animal or plant sources) or man-made (e.g., synthetic organics). |
Oxide | A binary chemical compound in which oxygen combines with a metal or non-metal. |
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 (e.g., 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 also chronic and sub-chronic reference dose. |
Risk | The probability an undesirable outcome will occur, defined in terms of the probability of a particular adverse effect. It has the dimensions of frequency or incidence (e.g., 1 in 1,000,000) and is coupled to an exposure estimate. The actual risk statement may take 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 in10,000 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 usually are 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 Iraq adopted to cripple Kuwaits economy by destroying its oil infrastructure. The plan was also designed to obtain a military advantage against Coalition forces. |
Shamal Winds | Strong, hot, dry, persistent northwest winds occurring in Kuwait most often in summer; frequently 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 | Kuwait crude oil containing as many as 20 to 30 ppm of hydrogen sulfide. |
Sub-chronic reference dose | An estimated daily exposure level for the general population, including sensitive sub-populations, likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a portion of a lifetime(14 days to 2 years). |
Temperature inversion | A meteorological condition in which in very still, stable air, cooler, denser air settles close to the ground and warmer air forms a blanket above it, trapping air pollutants, such as smoke and soot. In such an inversion, temperature increases with height. |
Toxicity factors | See Reference Dose and Slope Factor |
Troop unit | An organization of troops, aircraft, or ships 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 groups or task forces subdivision. When applied to reserve Armed Forces components, 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 | 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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