Analysis of worldwide regulatory guidance values for the most commonly regulated elemental surface soil contamination

Growing Gardens in Shrinking Cities: A Solution to the Soil Lead Problem?

“…In addition, some states have adopted stricter guidelines. The variability of soil lead guidelines in the US mirrors that of the international community; globally, soil lead guidelines span 3.7 orders of magnitude [39]. We therefore limit the extent of our paper to a soil lead level that a community decides is compatible with urban gardening, a decision they may make using numerous variables.…”

Residential surface soil guidance applied worldwide to the pesticides added to the Stockholm Convention in 2009 and 2011

“…Work on this subject has previously addressed RGVs applied to BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) (Jennings, 2009), naphthalene (Jennings, 2012a), chlorinated methanes, ethanes, and ethenes (Jennings, 2011a,b,c), chlorinated benzenes (Kowalsky and Jennings, 2012), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Jennings, 2012b,c) and the 20 most frequently regulated elements (Jennings, 2010(Jennings, , 2013a. Several other research groups have also examined RGV variability (see Jennings and Li, 2014), but have not considered the scope of jurisdictions or the set of pesticides considered here.…”

Residential surface soil guidance values applied worldwide to the original 2001 Stockholm Convention POP pesticides

“…Most are developed based on human health risk considerations and the most restrictive values are often applied to residential soil where children encounter contamination by soil ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. RGVs for soil contamination have been published by regulatory jurisdictions in at least 72 United Nations member states (Jennings, 2013a). However, there is little agreement on the set of contaminants that should be regulated or on the magnitude of the RGVs that should be applied.…”

“…To date, the RGVs applied to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (Jennings, 2009), naphthalene (Jennings, 2012a), the families of chlorinated methanes, ethanes, and ethenes (Jennings, 2011a,b,c), the chlorinated benzenes (Kowalsky and Jennings, 2012), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Jennings, 2012b,c) and the 20 most frequently regulated elements (Jennings, 2010(Jennings, , 2013a have been analyzed.…”