ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the variation among jurisdictions in soil quality standard (SQS) for the protection of human health, with the objective of understanding how these variations might be rationally harmonized. An SQS for the protection of human health typically varies with land use, as the relative contribution of each of the human exposure pathways (inhalation, soil ingestion, and food chain exposure) to trace elements (TEs) also varies with land use. While human health risk assessment is typically considered to be much simpler than ecological risk assessment because there is only 1 species to protect, there are various human health endpoints to be protected. For some TEs, there are important endpoints for each of the exposure pathways (inhalation, ingestion) so the SQS depends on the lowest exposure that reaches a critical value. Thus the endpoint and SQS can vary with land use, as this influences the type of exposure.
