What proportion of household dust is derived from outdoor soil?

Abstract

This report estimated the amount of outdoor soil in indoor dust in the Calabrese et al. (1989) children soil ingestion study via the use of statistical modelling. The estimate used data on outdoor soil and indoor dust in the homes of 60 children with eight tracer elements (Al, Ba, Mn, Si, Ti, V, Y, and Zr). The model estimated that 31.3% of indoor dust had an origin of outdoor soil. Based on a previous report (Stanek and Calabrese, 1992) on differential soil from dust ingestion in the Calabrese et al. (1989) study and the data of the present analysis, the median outdoor soil ingestion of the Calabrese et al. (1989) study should be revised downward by 35%. For the three most reliable tracers, the median soil ingestion estimates would be reduced from 29 to 19 mg/d for Al, 55 to 36 mg/d for Ti, and 16 to 10 mg/d for, Zr.

Key words:

• soil ingestion
• trace elements
• soil tracking