Effect doses for protection of human health predicted from physicochemical properties of metals/metalloids

Ying Wang; Fengchang Wu; Yuedan Liu; Yunsong Mu; John P Giesy; Wei Meng; Qing Hu; Jing Liu; Zhi Dang

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.09.065

Effect doses for protection of human health predicted from physicochemical properties of metals/metalloids

Environ Pollut. 2018 Jan:232:458-466. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.09.065. Epub 2017 Oct 5.

Authors

Ying Wang¹, Fengchang Wu², Yuedan Liu³, Yunsong Mu¹, John P Giesy⁴, Wei Meng¹, Qing Hu⁵, Jing Liu⁶, Zhi Dang⁷

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China. Electronic address: wufengchang@vip.skleg.cn.
³ The Key Laboratory of Water and Air Pollution Control of Guangdong Province, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, MEP, Guangzhou 510065, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China; Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon S7N 5B3, Canada.
⁵ Engineering Technology Innovation Center (Beijing), South University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China; Environmental Science Department, Baylor University, 76798, USA.
⁷ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, University Town, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 28987569
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.09.065

Abstract

Effect doses (EDs) of metals/metalloids, usually obtained from toxicological experiments are required for developing environmental quality criteria/standards for use in assessment of hazard or risks. However, because in vivo tests are time-consuming, costly and sometimes impossible to conduct, among more than 60 metals/metalloids, there are sufficient data for development of EDs for only approximately 25 metals/metalloids. Hence, it was deemed a challenge to derive EDs for additional metals by use of alternative methods. This study found significant relationships between EDs and physicochemical parameters for twenty-five metals/metalloids. Elements were divided into three classes and then three individual empirical models were developed based on the most relevant parameters for each class. These parameters included log-βn, ΔE₀ and X_m²r, respectively (R² = 0.988, 0.839, 0.871, P < 0.01). Those models can satisfactorily predict EDs for another 25 metals/metalloids. Here, these alternative models for deriving thresholds of toxicity that could be used to perform preliminarily, screen-level health assessments for metals are presented.

Keywords: Hazard; Human health; Prediction; Quantitative ion character-activity relationships (QICAR); Toxic potency.

MeSH terms

Environmental Exposure / statistics & numerical data*
Environmental Pollutants / chemistry
Environmental Pollutants / classification
Environmental Pollutants / toxicity*
Humans
Metalloids / chemistry
Metalloids / classification
Metalloids / toxicity*
Metals / chemistry
Metals / classification
Metals / toxicity*

Substances

Environmental Pollutants
Metalloids
Metals