Regional bioavailability assessment

Extraction methods based on solutions of chelating agents, such as EDTA and DTPA, or salts of weak acids, such as ammonium acetate (CH3COONH4) (Lakanen and Ervio, 1971 Lindsay and Norwell, 1969), can be used to assess plant-available trace element contents of soils and to evaluate more robustly human exposure to environmental risks in an urban context. A study carried out in the main cities of Campania region in southern Italy (Albanese, 2008) demonstrated how the bioavailable concentrations of some trace elements such as Zn, Pb and Cu in soils, determined using ammonium acetate-EDTA extraction, are much lower than the elemental concentrations determined by an aqua regia extraction on the same samples (Table 8.1). 

In this chapter, the different steps in the assessment of mixture exposure are discussed. The chapter starts from emission scenarios and subsequently discusses transformation processes taking place in the environment and their effects on mixture composition. Next, bioavailability is discussed, and exposure scenarios for both humans and biota in the environment are described. These descriptions also consider methods to assess exposure to mixtures. Most data available on mixture exposure are restricted to North America and Europe, but we recognize that there are emerging problems in other regions of the world. We restrict our discussion to man-made chemicals and those natural chemicals subject to regulation (metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)), because these represent the most well-studied group and the current priorities for risk assessment. 

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