January 2010 

EXTRACT: 
 
This report presents the results of a collaborative effort of risk assessors from 26 EIC and AGS 
member companies 
to produce generic assessment criteria (GAC) for soils for human health risk assessment. The 
project involved the 
collation and review of physico-chemical data, toxicological data and information on background 
exposure for 44 
contaminants sometimes encountered on land affected by contamination in the UK and the derivation 
of GAC 
for 351 of these using the CLEA model (v1.06). The GAC are intended to complement soil guideline 
values (SGV) 
produced by the Environment Agency of England and Wales and the 2nd edition GAC produced by LQM 
and CIEH 
(Nathanail et al, 2009). All three sets of assessment criteria have been derived in general accordance 
with the 
Environment Agency of England and Wales Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) guidance 
and thus the 
combined efforts of these three groups have resulted in a useful set of screening criteria for 
the assessment of risks 
to human health from soil contamination for more than 120 potentially contaminative substances.