Members of EHS Support’s Sediment & Risk Assessment team will present and participate at the SETAC North America 46th Annual Meeting, taking place from November 16-20 in Portland, Oregon.
Presentation topics will include:
Monday, November 17, 10:40 a.m. | Session 5.08.T-03: B117-119 (Level 1)
Deriving Acute Soil Screening Values To Assess Remote Historic Mining Sites: Approaches and Challenges.
Presented by: Dana McCue
Abstract: Human health risk assessment and the derivation of human health screening values are typically focused on routine, daily exposure scenarios (i.e., chronic exposure). Exposure scenarios which assess acute soil exposure, defined as a single or short-term exposure event (days), are not frequently considered. As such, limited guidance or guidelines are available within the United States and Internationally, and in most cases have been focused on the air inhalation pathway (i.e., Acute Exposure Guideline Levels [AEGLs]). This presentation will discuss the current state of science in regard to the calculation of acute soil screening criteria; describe potential receptors and exposure settings where they would apply; and, detail key sensitive assumptions related to exposure and toxicity that influence their derivation, such as appropriate soil ingestion rates for adults and children and available and applicable acute oral toxicity factors. A case study of the development of soil guideline values used to inform risk management for historic mining sites located in remote New Zealand will be provided.
Tuesday, November 18 | Poster Session 6.05.P-Tu-120: Exhibit Hall A-B (Level 1)
Implications of USEPA January 2025 Inorganic Arsenic Toxicity Value Update on Site Screening and Remediation.
Presented by: Chrissy Peterson
Abstract: Arsenic is naturally occurring and ubiquitous in the environment; however, arsenic is also used in manufacturing and processing. Because of this widespread natural and anthropogenic occurrence, arsenic is frequently identified as a constituent of concern for contaminated sites. Risk assessments of contaminated sites involve evaluation of chemical concentrations through screening and risk characterization activity. Human health risk-based screening levels (RBSLs) are developed using toxicological values and are used for comparison to Site concentrations. Toxicological values are also used in risk characterization which identifies potential unacceptable levels of risk to human receptors that might require land use restrictions or remediation efforts. United States Environmental Protection Agency released an update to the toxicological assessment of inorganic arsenic (CAS Number 7440-38-2) in January 2025. New developments in epidemiological in research resulted in revision to the non-cancer and cancer oral toxicity values. The revised toxicological values are several orders magnitude lower than previously published toxicity values used for risk characterization. Due to the toxicological value update, RBSLs are decreased and quantified cancer risks and noncancer hazards increased at the same order of magnitude. This presentation will discuss implications of the revised inorganic toxicity values on site remediation, the increased importance of developing site-specific background concentrations, and a case study evaluating remediation alternatives based on RBSLs and site-specific background values.
Click here for the full program: SETAC North American 46th Annual Meeting Program
