Dear USEtox team,
Could someone please help me understand why the Ecotox CF values obtained for natural and agricultural soil are the same, while cancer and non-cancer CFs are different? As this must be a silly question, I would appreciatte any recommendation of material that explores the differences between these two compartments in USEtox model.
Thank you in advance.
In USEtox, the general properties of agricultural and natural soil are the same. Hence, fate and eco-exposure factors in both compartments are the same. With that, ecotoxicity characterization factors for both compartments are the same.
For human toxicity, this is different. While both soil compartments have the same characteristics, human intake of agricultural produce is only from agricultural soil and not from natural soil, leading to different human intake fractions for both compartments, and with that to different human toxicity characterization factors.
Fate factors, eco-exposure factors and human intake pathways are all described in the USEtox documentation.
Thank you very much for the answer.
best regards,
Lucas