Enhancement of ICRP's Lung Deposition Model for Pathogenic Bioaerosols

Abstract

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.