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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Bioaccessibility of Arsenic Bound to Corundum Using a Simulated Gastrointestinal System

Douglas G. Beak A , Nicholas T. Basta A D , Kirk G. Scheckel B and Samuel J. Traina C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43209, USA.

B Land Remediation and Pollution Control Division, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH 45224-1702, USA.

C Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA.

D Corresponding author. Email: basta.4@osu.edu

Environmental Chemistry 3(3) 208-214 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN05067
Submitted: 15 August 2005  Accepted: 4 April 2006   Published: 10 July 2006

Environmental Context. Ingestion of soil contaminated with arsenic is an important pathway for human exposure to arsenic. The risk posed by ingestion of arsenic-contaminated soil depends on how much arsenic is dissolved in the gastrointestinal tract. Aluminum oxides are common components in the soil and act as a sink for arsenic. Knowledge of the behavior of arsenic associated with aluminum oxide surfaces in a simulated gastrointestinal tract will provide an understanding of the ingestion risk of arsenic-contaminated soil to humans.

Abstract. Arsenate adsorbed to oxide surfaces may influence the risk posed by incidental ingestion of arsenic-contaminated soil. Arsenate sorbed to corundum (α-Al2O3), a model Al oxide, was used to simulate ingested soil that has AsV sorbed to Al oxides. An in vitro assay was used to simulate the gastrointestinal tract and ascertain the bioaccessibility of arsenate bound to corundum. The surface speciation of arsenate was determined using extended X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy. The arsenate sorption maximum was found to be 470 mg kg–1 and the surface speciation of the sorbed arsenate was inner-sphere binuclear bidenate. The AsV was found to only be bioaccessible during the gastric phase of the in vitro assay. When the sorbed AsV was <470 mg kg–1 (i.e., the sorption maxima) the bioaccessible As was below detection levels, but when sorbed AsV was ≥470 mg kg–1 the bioaccessible As ranged from 9 to 16%. These results demonstrate that the bioaccessibility of arsenate is related to the concentration and the arsenate binding capacity of the binding soil.

Keywords. : Al oxides — arsenic — arsenic bioaccessibility — bioavailability — EXAFS — speciation


Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Alcoa for supplying the T64-20 micrometer corundum used in this research, Jerry Bigham and Sandy Jones for the use and guidance on the XRD and surface area equipment in the Soil Characterization Lab in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at the Ohio State University. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. W-31-109-Eng-38. Portions of this work were performed at the DuPont–Northwestern–Dow Collaborative Access Team (DND-CAT) Synchrotron Research Center located at Sector 5 of the Advanced Photon Source. DND-CAT is supported by the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., The Dow Chemical Company, the U.S. National Science Foundation through Grant DMR-9304725 and the State of Illinois through the Department of Commerce and the Board of Higher Education Grant IBHE HECA NWU 96. In addition, the authors thank the Environmental Molecular Science Institute at the Ohio State University for support of this project.


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