ABSTRACT
The issue of selecting an appropriate soil ingestion value for children and more for adults has become a significant challenge to public health and regulatory agencies as well as consultants performing site-specific risk assessments. This chapter offers guidance on how to approach the problem of selecting an appropriate daily soil ingestion rate in light of regulatory/public health needs within the context of the quality of the present soil ingestion database. Estimations of soil ingestion have been tracer-element specific. However, multiple tracer elements lead to a proliferation of soil ingestion estimates, and possible confusion in interpretation. There may be a number of potential factors affecting the differential rate of soil ingestion among rural, urban, and suburban children such as time spent outdoors, degree of grass cover of outdoor play areas, quantity of dust in home, and others. The range of nonfood items that young children may ingest is extremely variable, including: clothing, books/paper, crayons, soil, cigarettes, household furnishings, and other items.
