Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11.1 Introduction
11.1.1 Relevant Pathways
A number of exposure pathways may be relevant for human exposure, depending
on land use and corresponding human activities. For example, in European mod-
els for soil and groundwater related exposure, a total of 19 different pathways is
used (Carlon and Swartjes 2007 ). Some important exposure pathways have been
described in previous chapters, i.e., exposure through soil and dust ingestion (see
Chapter 6 by Bierkens et al., this topic) and exposure through vapour intrusion
indoors (see Chapter 10 by McAlary et al., this topic). In this chapter, six other
important pathways have been described in detail, these are exposure through:
consumption of vegetables (Section 11.2 );
consumption of animal products (Section 11.3 );
consumption of domestic water and inhalation of volatilised domestic water
(Section 11.4 );
inhalation of vapours outdoor (Section 11.5 );
inhalation of dust particles, indoors and outdoors (Section 11.6 );
dermal uptake, via soil material, outdoors and indoors (Section 11.7 ).
Note that these exposure pathways follow different exposure routes to enter the
human body, i.e., oral, inhalation and dermal routes, respectively.
Some of the soil and groundwater related pathways that were mentioned in
Carlon and Swartjes ( 2007 ) were not considered in this chapter, because they do not
play a significant role at the majority of contaminated sites, for example exposure
through inhalation of volatilised irrigation water.
The ingestion of soil attached to vegetables, also mentioned in Carlon and
Swartjes ( 2007 ), is included as part of the pathway “exposure through consumption
of vegetables”.
11.1.2 Calculating Exposure
Human exposure through all oral and inhalative exposure pathways described in this
chapter follow a similar pattern. This pattern includes the following three steps:
the transfer of contaminants from one of the mobile phases of the soil (pore water
or soil gas) into a so-called contact medium;
the intake of that contact medium by human beings;
the uptake of part of the contaminants from the contact medium into the blood
stream and target organs and the corresponding excretion of the remaining part
of the contaminants.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search