USE OF 'BIOAVAILABILITY' AS A TERM IN ECOTOXICOLOGY

摘要

The literature is full of inappropriate use of the term bioavailability and it would be a step forward if the term "bioavailability" was restricted to those studies where a biological response or bioaccumulation is the measurement endpoint. For the analytical chemists out there, think carefully about using the term bioavailability when reporting results from partial extractions of chemicals from environmental media in isolation of any biological response. The term "bioaccessible" should be reserved for studies where correlation of partial extractants with biological responses have been made and the magnitude of the bioaccessible pool is greater than or equal to the magnitude of the bioavailable pool (Semple et al. 2004]. Other partial extractions of chemicals from environmental media should be termed "extractable" pools.