K. Hughes et al., SPECIATION IN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENTS OF METALS - EVALUATION OF EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH FORMS PRESENT IN THE ENVIRONMENT, Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology, 22(3), 1995, pp. 213-220
Because metals occur in various forms in the environment, speciation i
s an issue which must be addressed in regulatory health risk assessmen
t programs. The manner in which speciation was addressed in a federal
program in Canada is discussed in this article. Under the Canadian Env
ironmental Protection Act, four metals, including arsenic, cadmium, ch
romium, and nickel, and their compounds were assessed as priority subs
tances to determine the risk to human health associated with exposure
to levels present in the general environment in Canada. The extent to
which the speciation of these metals could be considered in these asse
ssments was largely determined by the nature of available data. Very f
ew data were identified on speciation in environmental media to which
humans are exposed. Based on available data on health effects, it was
possible to conduct assessments on only one form each of arsenic and c
admium (i.e., inorganic arsenic and inorganic cadmium), two forms of c
hromium (trivalent and hexavalent), and four forms of inorganic nickel
(oxidic, sulfidic, soluble, and metallic). (C) 1995 Academic Press,In
c.