Soil ingest ion issues and recommendations

Abstract

This paper provides a critical assessment of the ability of soil ingestion studies to provide reliable quantitative estimates of soil ingestion. It also identifies principal causes of both inter‐study and inter‐tracer variability in soil ingestion estimates and applies this knowledge to the previous published soil ingestion studies of Calabrese et al. (1989). The paper concludes by providing a decision framework for estimating soil ingestion rates within the context of age of subjects, urban vs rural, seasonality, normal vs soil pica behavior and other considerations affecting soil ingestion rates.

Key words:

• soil ingestion
• pica
• exposure assessment
• dust