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Ingested Soil: Bioavailability of Sorbed Lead, Cadmium, Cesium, Iodine, and Mercury
Author(s) -
Sheppard S. C.,
Evenden W. G.,
Schwartz W. J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1995.00472425002400030017x
Subject(s) - bioavailability , chemistry , environmental chemistry , mercury (programming language) , cadmium , ingestion , contamination , soil contamination , soil water , biochemistry , biology , pharmacology , ecology , computer science , programming language , organic chemistry
Ingestion of soil, inadvertent or otherwise, is an important route of exposure for contaminants that are not geochemically or biologically mobile. There is little known about the bioavailability of these contaminants, especially when the contaminants are sorbed onto native soil particles. We investigated this with in vitro acid‐extraction and enzymolysis experiments and with in vivo single and chronic exposure studies with mice ( Mus musculus ). The only anion studied was 125 I, and soil in the diet had no effect on the carcass 125 I content. The bioavailability of the cations tested decreased in the order of 134 Cs > 203 Hg > 115 Cd = 210 Pb, and the effect of soil in the diet on concentrations in the carcass decreased in the same order. Soil in the diet significantly decreased the bioavallability of 134 Cs, by more than four‐fold, whereas the effect on 210 Pb was only ≈1.1‐fold and was not significant. The results of the in vitro digestions ordered the elements in the same way as observed in the in vivo analyses. These results indicate that for contaminants that are not very mobile and are sorbed onto native soil particles, the presence of soil in the diet does not markedly affect bioavailability in the gut.