The Estimation of the Bioaccessibility of Heavy Metals in Soils Using Artificial Biofluids by Two Novel Methods: Mass-balance and Soil Recapture

The possible human health effects resulting from the ingestion of soil bound heavy metals can be poorly estimated if concentration of total metals in soil, rather than bioavailable fraction of metals, are incorporated into dose calculations. Information regarding bioavailability often is obtained from animal studies, which are not easily conducted and still may not represent human conditions. A rapid simulation of the bioaccessible fraction of contaminant in a soil, in which that fraction is mass soluble in gastrointestinal tract fluids, has been employed in an in vitro sequential extraction technique. Using a mass-balance analytical approach to measure bioaccessibility in four soils, the results indicated that each metal had a bioaccessible fraction less than its total metal content. Lead (Pb) in Standard Reference Material, Montana SRM 2710, was found to be 62 +/- 1% bioaccessible; Pb in contaminated soil collected from Bunker Hill, ID, USA was 70 +/- 11%. Lead in Jersey City, NJ, USA slag material was only 39 +/- 14% bioaccessible while Pb in a residential soil was 69%. Arsenic (As) and chromium (Cr) data from select soils also have bioaccessibility less than the corresponding total metal in soil, with 41 +/- 2% As in a residential soil, 66 +/- 8% As in SRM 2710, and 34 +/- 14% Cr in Jersey City slag material. Recovering the soil at the end of the in vitro extraction allowed for the determination of the insoluble fraction of total metal in soil. This recaptured soil metal mass was a valuable measurement since it greatly reduced analysis and therefore labor and time, yet also provided a reasonable estimate of bioaccessibility. It also allowed for calculation of a bioaccessibility value in a soil containing very low metal mass, which would otherwise have resulted in a non-detectable concentration at the dilutions required in the synthetic human biofluid system.