Polish Soil Quality Standards Versus Risk-Based Soil Screening Levels for Metals and Arsenic

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study was derivation of risk-based soil screening levels (RBSSLs) under two basic exposure scenarios—industrial and residential, and their comparison with the relevant soil quality standards (SQSs), applied in Poland as remedial targets. The RBSSLs were derived from standardized sets of equations that are based on the recently updated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's human health risk assessment methods. The article presents the results concerning 12 contaminants listed in the SQS ordinance: arsenic, barium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, lead, tin, and zinc. Taking only the human health protection criterion into account, most of SQSs for non-carcinogenic metals under both industrial and residential scenarios seem to be too stringent if used as the remedial levels, which may lead to unnecessary remediation. On the other hand, the SQSs for carcinogenic contaminants (As, Cr^VI) correspond to cancer risk levels significantly higher than the acceptable level of 1E-06. The findings of the study may constitute the first step to justify the amendment of the Polish SQS ordinance aimed at establishing the new soil quality values based on clearly defined criteria.

Key Words:

• contaminated land
• human health risk assessment
• soil quality standards
• risk-based soil screening levels
• Poland.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The study was financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a statutory activity of the Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Katowice, Poland (grant number 118/DNP2/09). I also thank Ms. Mirosława Cyrana-Szram from the Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Katowice, Poland for checking the English version of this article.

Notes

NORISC (Network Oriented Risk-assessment by In-situ Screening of Contaminated Sites)—the project performed under the 5th European Union Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2001–2003) (http://www.norisc.com/)

National Inventory of Potential Sources of Soil Contamination in Cyprus—the project conducted by the Hellenic Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME) in collaboration with the Polish Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU) and the Cypriot company GeoInvest Ltd. (2005–2007).

It is not specified which chromium form—III or VI the SQS applies to, therefore RBSSLs were calculated for both chromium forms.

The methodology for deriving RBSSLs is not applicable for lead, which is classified as a special case (USEPA 2010a) (see Section—Lead).