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Soil type-specific environmental quality standards for zinc in Dutch soil
Rudy Bos1, Mark Huijbregts, Willie Peijnenburg
1Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computing Science, The Netherlands.
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
|April 28, 2006
Summary
Soil type significantly impacts zinc
Area of Science:
- Environmental Chemistry
- Soil Science
- Ecotoxicology
Background:
- Zinc is a naturally occurring heavy metal.
- Chemical effects on soil ecosystems are soil type-dependent.
- Natural background concentrations and toxicity of zinc vary by soil type.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a methodology for soil type-specific environmental quality standards for zinc.
- To account for natural occurrence and soil type variations in risk assessment.
- To derive soil type-specific background concentrations and maximum permissible additions (MPAs) for zinc in Dutch soil.
Main Methods:
- A 6-step risk assessment strategy was employed.
- Steps included: soil type identification, background concentration determination, organism selection, no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC) determination, and derivation of MPA and maximum permissible concentration (MPC).
Main Results:
- Background concentrations of zinc varied up to 7.5-fold between Dutch soil types.
- MPAs varied up to 3-fold across soil types.
- Resulting MPCs ranged from 44 mg/kg dry weight to 208 mg/kg dry weight for the three predominant soil types.
Conclusions:
- Soil type-specific risk assessment is crucial for accurate environmental quality standards for zinc.
- Uncertainties in background concentrations limit the precision of zinc standards.
- Further measurements of remote background zinc concentrations are needed to reduce uncertainties and improve MPC accuracy.
