An improved method for estimating soil ingestion in children and adults

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method for providing quantitative estimates for soil ingestion based on studies using mass‐balance methodologies. The method selects the lowest food to soil tracer ingestion ratio for a subject‐week as the “best tracer” ratio based on the concept for the potential for precision of recovery. This approach will yield a single soil ingestion estimate per subject‐week as well as for population‐based estimates. It is expected to yield a marked improvement in the precision of recovery and lower soil ingestion detection for soil ingestion studies. This approach is designed to overcome recognized problems in current soil ingestion studies in which most tracer soil ingestion estimates were below the soil ingestion detection limit of such studies due principally to high food to soil tracer ingestion ratios.

Key words:

• soil ingestion
• pica
• lead
• dioxin