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Abstract

The February 2010 release of the Draft Toxicological Review of Inorganic Arsenic by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provoked discussion of a potential significant downward revision of the arsenic cancer slope factor (CSF), which would be applicable to many oral exposure evaluations. Given the extreme variability in soil cleanup guidelines that are in use throughout the United States and internationally for arsenic, it may be appropriate to more seriously consider bifurcating the manner in which arsenic is evaluated in environmental media. In much the same fashion by which manganese and cadmium presently are evaluated from a risk perspective, arsenic may lend itself to similar evaluation from a drinking water exposure standpoint separately from a dietary or an environmental soil route of exposure. This paper examines the basis for the current oral toxicological guidance with respect to specific exposure route and environmental medium of exposure, and addresses possible means for alternative toxicity guidance related to arsenic, based on differences in exposure through soil or the diet.

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