Daily soil ingestion estimates for children at a Superfund site.
Ingestion of contaminated soil by children may result in significant exposure to toxic substances at contaminated sites. Estimates of such exposure are based on extrapolation of short-term-exposure estimates to longer time periods. This article provides daily estimates of soil ingestion on 64 children between the ages of 1 and 4 residing at a Superfund site; these values are employed to estimate the distribution of 7-day average soil ingestion exposures (mean, 31 mg/day; median, 17 mg/day) at a contaminated site over different time periods. Best linear unbiased predictors of the 95th-percentile of soil ingestion over 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, and 365 days are 133 mg/day, 112 mg/day, 108 mg/day and 106 mg/day, respectively. Variance components estimates (excluding titanium and outliers, based on Tukey's far-out criteria) are given for soil ingestion between subjects (59 mg/day)2, between days on a subject (95 mg/day)2, and for uncertainty on a subject-day (132 mg/day)2. These results expand knowledge of potential exposure to contaminants among young children from soil ingestion at contaminated sites. They also provide basic distributions that serve as a starting point for use in Monte Carlo risk assessments.
Stanek
E J
EJ
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01002, USA. stanek@schoolph.umass.edu
Calabrese
E J
EJ
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000633:toxicity; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis
D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014131:Trace Elements