ABSTRACT
Exposures to soil contaminated by petrochemicals released during manufacture, use, storage, transport or disposal are widespread. Evaluation of the potential health risk to workers and communities exposed to petroleum contaminated soils is of growing concern, and, moreover, is a complex problem for which methods are being developed. Adsorption to either of two New Jersey soils increased the amount of benzene available to orally exposed rats, as well as produced changes in plasma kinetics and excretion patterns versus benzene in the absence of soil. The chapter aims to present a pharmacokinetic techniques to assess the effect that soil adsorption has on the bioavailability of toluene by the oral and dermal routes. Radioactivity in the sandy soil-adsorbed group was also greatest in the stomach, followed by the fat, and to a lesser extent, in pancreas and liver. The tissue distribution pattern of oral toluene-derived radioactivity was unaffected by the presence of either soil.
