University of Aveiro, Department of Chemistry & CESAM, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal; Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR/CIMAR), University of Porto, Rua dos Bragas 289, P 4050-123 Porto, Portugal.
University of Aveiro, Department of Geosciences & GeoBioTec-GeoBioSciences, Geotechnologies and Geoengineering Research Center, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Sci Total Environ. 2016 May 1;551-552:271-84. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.012. Epub 2016 Feb 12.
The assessment of soil quality and characterization of potential risks to the environment and human health can be a very difficult task due to the heterogeneity and complexity of the matrix, the poor understanding about the fate of contaminants in the soil matrix, scarcity of toxicological/ecotoxicological data and variability of guidelines. In urban soils these difficulties are enhanced by the patchy nature of urban areas and the presence of complex mixtures of organic and inorganic contaminants resulting from diffuse pollution caused by urban activities (e.g. traffic, industrial activity, and burning of carbon sources for heating). Yet, several tools are available which may help to assess the risks of soil contamination in a simpler, cost effective and reliable way. Within these tools, a tiered risk assessment (RA) approach, first based on a chemical screening in combination with geostatistical tools, may be very useful in urban areas. However, there is still much to improve and a long way to go in order to obtain a reliable RA, especially in the case of hydrophobic organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This paper aims at proposing a RA framework to assess the environmental and human health risks of PAHs present in urban soils, based on existing models. In addition, a review on ecotoxicological, toxicological, and exposure assessment data was made, as well as of the existing soil quality guidelines for PAHs that can be used in the RA process.
由于土壤基质的异质性和复杂性、对污染物在土壤基质中归宿的了解不足、毒理学/生态毒理学数据的缺乏以及指南的可变性，土壤质量评估和潜在环境与人类健康风险的特征描述可能是一项非常困难的任务。在城市土壤中，由于城市地区的斑块状性质以及城市活动（例如交通、工业活动和为取暖而燃烧碳源）造成的弥散污染导致的有机和无机污染物的复杂混合物的存在，这些困难更加突出。然而，有几种工具可以帮助以更简单、具有成本效益和可靠的方式评估土壤污染的风险。在这些工具中，基于化学筛选与地统计学工具相结合的分层风险评估 (RA) 方法在城市地区可能非常有用。然而，要获得可靠的 RA，仍有许多工作要做，尤其是对于疏水性有机化合物（如多环芳烃）。本文旨在基于现有模型，提出一个用于评估城市土壤中多环芳烃的环境和人类健康风险的 RA 框架。此外，还对生态毒理学、毒理学和暴露评估数据以及可用于 RA 过程的多环芳烃的现有土壤质量指南进行了综述。
