Environmental Quality Criteria for Lead in Soil Based on Ecological Risk

Environmental criteria (ECs) are threshold concentrations for toxic and hazardous substances in environmental media to be harmless to given receptors. ECs are the scientific basis for formulation of environmental standards. Literature research was carried out to collect data of eco-toxicity of lead in soil. The species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method was adopted to perform modeling analysis of the data. Ecological risk-based threshold concentration for Pb in soil was figured out to be 80.5 mg·kg^-1 on the basis of protection of 95% of the species. Compared with similar soil environmental criteria of other countries and regions, the threshold concentration derived by the authors for Pb in soil is at a level moderate on the conservative side. All the findings of this study may serve as a scientific basis for formulation of soil Pb environmental standards for protection of terrestrial ecological species.