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Researchers from the University of Toronto have developed a computer-based, decision support tool to assess the risks of vehicle-emitted chemical contaminants, affecting wildlife in the Twin Cities urban areas, as well as a decision support tool to assess the risks to birds and mammals of chemical contaminants released by vehicles.

This is the User’s Guide for running the decision support tool described in MnDOT report 2004-14, Environmental Hazard Assessment For Transportation Related Chemicals: Development of a Decision Support Tool. A Multimedia Urban Model, or MUM, was developed to estimate the fate and potential risks to ecological receptors posed by chemical contaminants emitted from vehicle emissions. The decision tool has three components derived from the MUM that has been applied to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Twin Cities. The first, MUM-Fate, estimates the long-term average concentrations of contaminants in 81 geographic segments and nine media in warm (spring-summer-fall) and cold (winter) scenarios. Secondly, MUM-Exposure estimates the exposure of these contaminants by selected bird and mammal species that are representative of aquatic and terrestrial routes of exposure. Third, MUM-Risk estimates the potential risk posed by the estimated intake of contaminants, as determined by comparison against toxicological benchmarks. The decision tool also estimates the potential risk posed by estimated air, water and sediment concentrations in comparison to media -specific benchmarks. The decision tool is designed to consider volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds that may be persistent or metabolizable, as well as metals. The decision tool is available as a computer program with a user-friendly interface and that runs in a Windows environment. The decision tool (software program) contains an extensive database of physical-chemical properties, intake rates and diets of species and toxicological benchmarks.