Influence of land use on human bioaccessibility of metals in smelter-impacted soils

An investigation was undertaken to evaluate the empirical model developed by Pelfrêne et al. (2012), predicting the human bioaccessibility of Cd and Pb in smelter-contaminated agricultural topsoils, by including other soil uses: 50 urban and 65 woody habitat topsoils collected in the same area. The results showed that land use significantly affected the pseudototal metal concentrations and their oral bioaccessibility. However, whatever the soil's physicochemical parameters and degree of contamination, the 'agricultural' model can be used to simulate metal gastric bioaccessibility in urban and woody habitat soils. To simulate gastrointestinal bioaccessibility, this model can be used directly if the pseudototal metal concentrations are on the same order of magnitude as those usually recorded in the agricultural soils studied or after the use of a correction factor if these concentrations are greater. These results showed that the oral bioaccessibility predictions could be applicable for further environmental risk evaluation.