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DEVELOPMENT OF TOXICITY REFERENCE VALUES FOR ECOLOGICAL SOIL SCREENING LEVELS (ECO-SSLS) FOR TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE
Citation:
Burris, J., D. Hoff, D. W. Charters, C L. Russom, S. Ells, AND L. Woodbury. DEVELOPMENT OF TOXICITY REFERENCE VALUES FOR ECOLOGICAL SOIL SCREENING LEVELS (ECO-SSLS) FOR TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE. Presented at 22nd Annual SETAC Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 11-15, 2001.
Description:
Ecological Soil Screening Levels (Eco-SSLs) protective of terrestrial wildlife were developed by the USEPA Superfund. The wildlife Eco-SSL is the soil contaminant concentration where the Effect Dose (TRV) and Exposure Dose are equal (amount of contaminant in the diet that is taken up from the soil). The TRV is defined as the dose above which ecologically relevant effects might occur to wildlife species following chronic dietary exposure and below which it is reasonably expected that effects will not occur. A four-step process is used to derive TRVs: 1) Literature search, 2) Literature review and data extraction, 3) Data evaluation, and 4) TRV derivation. This presentation examines the process and results of the 2nd and 3rd Steps of the TRV Derivation process. Highlighted is a web-based data entry system which is used to guide the review and entry of data from studies according to an established coding procedure. The extraction results in toxicological data classified by effect type for six classes of endpoints including mortality, reproduction, growth, biochemical, behavioral, and physiological. Each extracted result is assigned a data evaluation score ranging from 30 to 100 indicating the quality of the study. Studies with scores above 65 are then plotted by effect type and used to derive the wildlife TRV (Step 4) according to a pre-established selection and calculation hierarchy. The results of data review, extraction, evaluation and TRV derivation are reviewed for eleven contaminants including aluminum, chromium, copper, cadmium, cobalt, antimony, RDX, DDT, dieldrin, selenium, and lead.