Soil and dust ingestion by children comparing urban and suburban areas in Korea

摘要

Soil and dust ingestion may be a potentially important exposure pathway to environmental contaminants because they contain hazardous heavy metals. Children, in particular, may ingest significant quantities of soil and dust due to their tendency to play on the floor indoors and ground outdoors and their tendency to mouth objects or their fingers. The aim of this study was to estimate soil and dust ingestion rates of Korean children by geographical and cultural characteristics. The ingestion rates per day were estimated using the EPA/600/R-17/384F method and analyzed concentrations using aluminum(AI) as an indicator. In general, Al is a substance found in soil and dust at a high concentration but not decomposed or affected by living things. This study involved 113 children aged 0-6 years. Fecal samples were obtained from 56 children in urban areas in 2017 and 57 children in suburban areas in 2018, and soil samples near their residence. The soil and dust ingestion rates were 57.5 mg/day in urban areas and 84.2 mg/day in suburban areas. The mean ingestion rate was 70.6 mg/day. These were lower than the recommended values, 118 mg/day by The Korean Ministry of Environment(2007) and 80 mg/day by the U.S.EPA(2017). These results can be explained the children corresponded with the decreased outdoor activities and increased indoor activities compared with the previous study. Also, the playground was built with urethane, not ordinary sand and it was difficult to find artificial green spaces in the cities during sampling soils. It may be another reason that children play phone and internet games at home. Accordingly, these environments could be decrease soil and dust ingestion rates for children. This study is important to access the health risk resulting from exposure to environmental contaminants via soil and dust ingestion pathway by children in Korea as well as other countries.