Surface soils from a 19 km2 area in east London, UK were analysed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) (n = 76). ∑16 PAH ranged from 4 to 67 mg/kg (mean, 18 mg/kg) and ∑50 PAH ranged from 6 to 88 mg/kg (mean, 25 mg/kg). ∑7 PCB ranged from 1 to 750 μg/kg (mean, 22 μg/kg) and ∑tri-hepta PCB ranged 9 to 2600 μg/kg (mean, 120 μg/kg). Compared to other international cities concentrations were similar for PAH but higher for PCB. Normal background concentrations (NBC) were calculated and compared to risk-based human health generic assessment criteria (GAC). Benzo[a]pyrene NBC for urban (6.9 mg/kg), semi-urban (4.4 mg/kg) and urban + semi urban (6 mg/kg) domains exceed residential (1 mg/kg) and allotment (2.2 mg/kg) LQM/CIEH GAC (at 6% SOM) and the Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene NBC for urban (6.8 mg/kg) and urban + semi-urban (5.2 mg/kg) domains exceed the residential (4.2 mg/kg) LQM/CIEH GAC (at 6% SOM).\ud \ud Capsule Normal background concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls are elevated in east London soils and in some cases exceed regulatory assessment criteria.\u

The revised Environmental Protection Act Part 2A contaminated land Statutory Guidance (England and Wales) makes reference to 'normal' levels of contaminants in soil. The British Geological Survey has been commissioned by the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to estimate contaminant levels in soil and to define what is meant by 'normal' for English soil. The Guidance states that 'normal' levels of contaminants are typical and widespread and arise from a combination of both natural and diffuse pollution contributions. Available systematically collected soil data sets for England are explored for inorganic contaminants (As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP). Spatial variability of contaminants is studied in the context of the underlying parent material, metalliferous mineralisation and associated mining activities, and the built (urban) environment, the latter being indicative of human activities such as industry and transportation. The most significant areas of elevated contaminant concentrations are identified as contaminant domains. Therefore, rather than estimating a single national contaminant range of concentrations, we assign an upper threshold value to contaminant domains. Our representation of this threshold is a Normal Background Concentration (NBC) defined as the upper 95% confidence limit of the 95th percentile for the soil results associated with a particular domain. Concentrations of a contaminant are considered to be typical and widespread for the identified contaminant domain up to (and including) the calculated NBC. A robust statistical methodology for determining NBCs is presented using inspection of data distribution plots and skewness testing, followed by an appropriate data transformation in order to reduce the effects of point source contamination.

This paper presents a multi-laboratory comparison study of in vitro models assessing bioaccessibility of soil-bound lead in the human gastrointestinal tract under simulated fasted and fed conditions. Oral bioavailability data from a previous human in vivo study on the same soil served as a reference point. In general, the bioaccessible lead fraction was significantly (P < 0.05) different between the in vitro methods and ranged for the fasted models from 2% to 33% and for the fed models from 7% to 29%. The in vivo bioavailability data from literature were 26.2 ± 8.1% for fasted conditions, compared to 2.5 ± 1.7% for fed conditions. Under fed conditions, all models returned higher bioaccessibility values than the in vivo bioavailability; whereas three models returned a lower bioaccessibility than bioavailability under fasted conditions. These differences are often due to the method's digestion parameters that need further optimization. An important outcome of this study was the determination that the method for separating the bioaccessible lead from the non-bioaccessible fraction (centrifugation, filtration, ultrafiltration) is crucial for the interpretation of the results. Bioaccessibility values from models that use more stringent separation methods better approximate in vivo bioavailability results, yet at the expense of the level of conservancy. We conclude from this study that more optimization of in vitro digestion models is needed for use in risk assessment. Moreover, attention should be paid to the laboratory separation method since it largely influences what fraction of the contaminant is considered bioaccessible.