ABSTRACT
The Second Conference on Environmental and Public Health Effects of Soils Contaminated with Petroleum Products, held at the University of Massachusetts in September 1987, represents the third major conference on soil contamination in New England in the past two years, and the second meeting focused on petroleum contamination in particular. The conference identified some of the critical issues in assessing and managing health risks from soil contaminants today. Site usage is important in defining the exposed population. For contaminated soils in residential areas, children would generally represent the primary population of concern. Information on soil ingestion rates often are not all that is needed to estimate the body burden of a chemical from soil over time. The effect of different variables, such as environmental fate or pharmacokinetic factors, are evaluated. It appears unlikely that a single health-based level for an acceptable concentration of a contaminant could be developed that would be applicable to all sites.
