Environmental Risk Limits for Nine Trace Elements

In this report, we present an update of environmental risk limits (ERLs), based on the literature, for nine trace elements, namely, beryllium (Be), vanadium (V), cobalt (Co), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), tin (Sn), antimony (Sb), barium (Ba) and thallium (Tl). The updated ERLs, established for these elements in freshwater, groundwater, soil and sediment, are to supplement 1992 datasets for risk limit derivation. The updated ERLs for water and groundwater have turned out to be generally lower than existing limits as a result of both new information on toxicity and changes in the methodology used to derive risk limits. Risk limits derived for soil are now based on soil toxicity data for the elements investigated, whereas the existing values for soil were all based on ERLs for water using equilibrium partitioning (EqP). Due to lack of data, ERLs for sediment are still based on EqP and generally show minor changes when compared to existing limits. The maximum permissible concentration (MPC) in rivers and lakes in the Netherlands was found to be exceeded by average measured concentrations of Be, V, Co and Ba, but not of Se and Sb. A qualitative comparison shows that the MPC in groundwater is exceeded for Be, V, Co, Se and Ba concentrations but not for Mo, Sn, Sb and Tl concentrations, although some data on deeper groundwater are missing. No measurement data could be found for the soil, sediment and marine water compartments