Bioaccessibility of trace elements in urban environments

This chapter discusses the analytical protocols that have been developed to assess the bioaccessibility of contaminants potentially able to impact human health. In order to evaluate a contaminant’s bioaccessibility, the physiological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract or lung environment must be reproduced in the laboratory. Most research efforts in the bioaccessibility of trace elements have taken place in the context of urban environments. Urban soil is the most thoroughly studied solid matrix in urban environments as regards the bioaccessibility of trace elements in its composition. Harmonisation of gastrointestinal and lung bioaccessibility analytical protocols should be followed by unification of criteria for how their results are used and interpreted in human health risk assessments. Failure to consider this bioaccessibility in a risk assessment leads to numerical outcomes of risk that may overestimate the real value by more than one order of magnitude.