Recommended Guidance and Checklist for Human Health Risk Assessment of Metal(loid)s in Soil

Abstract

Metallic elements are widely dispersed in the environment, especially in the soil. Although, several studies are available to human health risk assessment (HHRA) of metal in the soil, there is no uniformity in parameters used among authors. However, reliability and replicability are based on clearly emphasizing the information necessary for the application of HHRA. Thus, this study aimed to develop a checklist with the essential parameters for conducting HHRA of metallic elements in the soil and apply this tool in articles selected through a systematic review, in order to reveal whether these articles clearly bring the information necessary to conduct HHRA. The checklist was based on planning section and the four basic steps on HHRA (including hazard identification, exposure assessment, toxicity assessment and risk characterization). This review was carried out in electronic databases, including original survey reporting HHRA of metallic elements in soil according to the USEPA or similar method (based on the risk/hazard ratio between the dose of exposure and the reference dose). Two hundred ninety-four studies were included. After applying the checklist, it was found that there is a lack of information on values and parameters in the HHRA studies, mainly in planning (information about collection and soil parameters), exposure assessment (concentration of substance used in risk assessment) and hazard identification (information on carcinogenicity or not the substances) sections. The checklist proposed by this study can be fundamental to standardize and improve the quality of HHRA data, highlighting the importance of transparent and reproducible results for the management of areas contaminated by trace elements.