Featured - Amounts of Soil and Dust Ingested by Children and the Bioavailability of Pollutants: Current Knowledge and Recommendations

The issue of the amount of soil and dust ingested by a child is often central to exposure and health risk assessments conducted in the context of soil contamination. In these assessments, the values used are often set high as a precaution. However, comparing calculated estimates of pollutant exposure doses with biomarker measurements reveals significant discrepancies in which doses derived from the amount of soil ingested play a major role. Among the associated parameters, the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of pollutants in soil are also frequently cited as limitations of these studies. It was therefore essential to study the combination of these two parameters: the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) and the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris) took the initiative in 2007 to establish a working group to provide the necessary clarifications and analyses regarding this human exposure variable. [...]