Enhancement of ICRP's Lung Deposition Model for Pathogenic Bioaerosols

• Published in: Aerosol science and technology Vol. 48; no. 12; pp. 1226 - 1235
• Main Authors: Guha, Suvajyoti, Hariharan, Prasanna, Myers, Matthew R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis 02.12.2014; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adults; Aerosols; Airborne microorganisms; Bacillus anthracis; Bioaerosols; Biological & chemical terrorism; Biological & chemical weapons; Biological and medical sciences; Bioterrorism; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Deposition; Disaster management; Emergency preparedness; Exact sciences and technology; Freeware; General and physical chemistry; Health risks; Human exposure; Infants; Influenza virus; Lungs; Mathematical models; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Radiology; Risk; Source code; Terrorism; Threat models; Toxins; Viruses; Aerosols; Models; Bioaerosol; Pathogenic; Lung; Deposition
• ISSN: 0278-6826; 1521-7388
• DOI: 10.1080/02786826.2014.975334

Terrorist attacks using pathogenic bioaerosols pose a significant public-health threat. Modeling the risk associated with such attacks is valuable from the standpoint of disaster preparedness. To attain greater flexibility in bioterrorism risk modeling, we have developed an open-source lung deposition code based on the International Committee for Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 66 (ICRP 1994). This article describes modifications to ICRP's lung deposition model to fit the bioaerosol context and discusses the impact of exposure from a few monodisperse pathogenic toxins such as botulinum toxin, influenza virus, and Bacillus anthracis to infants and adults. As most existing commercial lung deposition codes are not open-source, this code provides users a platform template that can be modified to meet their needs.