19Human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) often occurs through the oral 20 route during hand to mouth transfer of contaminated soils. It is accepted that PAH bioavailability 21 from ingested soils will vary between soils, however, the nature of this variation is not well 22 characterized. Here, we used the juvenile swine model to link external exposure to internal 23 benzo influencing internal exposure of PAHs. We propose four PAH risk assessment options: (i) 34 assume 100% bioavailability, (ii) assume constant internal exposure below 1,900 mg kg -1 , (iii) 35 assume <100%, e.g. 21%, bioavailability below 1,900 mg kg -1 , or (iv) model internal exposure 36 through AUC versus soil characteristic relationships. In our opinion, our data best supports 37 option (ii) because we could not detect an increase in AUC with increasing soil concentrations 38 and our best efforts at (iv) do not robustly predict uptake of different PAHs. 39