Alyssa Zearley's Graduate Exit Seminar

We invite you to attend Alyssa Zearley's Wednesday, July 11th at 10 A.M. in 333 Kottman Hall.
She will be presenting Incorporating Diet into In Vitro Bioaccessibility Assays to Improve Prediction of Lead Bioavailability.

Abstract:

Anthropogenic use of lead has resulted in widespread soil contamination. Exposure to lead when contaminated soil is incidentally ingested with food poses a risk to both humans and wildlife. Using bioavailable soil lead rather than total soil lead when calculating exposure provides a more accurate representation of risk, reducing cleanup costs and enabling more sites to be remediated.

Soil in vitro bioaccessibilityassays simulate gastrointestinal conditions to measure the amount of soil lead that is available for absorption in the gut (bioaccessiblelead) and are used to predict bioavailable soil lead (lead that is absorbed into the bloodstream). These methods simulate fasting conditions, however, and it is unclear whether they are appropriate for evaluating exposure to lead in soil that is consumed with diet. In order to simulate lead exposure in humans eating unwashed produce and in wildlife incidentally consuming soil while feeding, this study sought to incorporate diet into soil lead in vitro bioaccessibilityassays. Diet was found to greatly reduce bioaccessiblelead in most cases, suggesting that not considering diet when calculating soil lead bioavailability may overestimate risk. These experiments have demonstrated that the effects of diet on soil lead bioavailability should be considered when evaluating exposure to soil lead in people and wildlife.