Effect of soluble phosphate and bentonite amendments on lead and cadmium bioavailability and bioaccessibility in a contaminated soil

Effect of commonly used heavy metal immobilizing agents on risks of soil heavy metals has not been well investigated. In this work, a contaminated acidic soil (total Cd = 8.05, total Pb = 261 mg kg(- 1)) was amended with soluble phosphate (P: 160 mg kg(-1)) and bentonite (3 g kg(-1)) and incubated for 360 d. The soil was then added to mouse feed at 1:9 soil: feed ratio (weight) and fed to mouse for 10 days, after which the liver, kidney and bone Pb and Cd concentrations were measured. The amended soils were extracted with SBRC and PBET to assay bioaccessibility, and extracted with DTPA to assess the environmental availability. The amendments did not affect the DTPA-Pb/Cd significantly (p > 0.05), while the Cd bioaccessibility in the gastric phase of the SBRC assay was reduced from 90.0 to 20.4 % for the bentonite amended treatment (p < 0.05). Kidney Pb and Cd concentrations of the mice fed with feed containing phosphate spiked soil was 80.2 and 66.0 % lower than the control mice fed with unamended soil (CK), respectively. Significant linear correlations were found between DTPA-extractable concentration and kidney concentrations for Pb/Cd. The effect of amendment on Pb/Cd bioavailability differed between the results calculated with different endpoints. The phosphate amendment resulted in 82.7 and 34.3 % lower Pb RBA compared with the unamended soil calculated with kidney and kidney+liver+bone Pb concentrations, respectively, and 68.8 and 49.7 % lower Cd RBA than the control with kidney and kidney+liver concentrations, respectively. However, no significant effect was observed with both amendments when the RBA was calculated with liver or bone Pb/Cd concentrations, or on Pb RBA with kidney, liver or bone metal concentrations. Results indicate the complex effect of amendments on organ, tissue and overall health risk of soil Pb/Cd to animal/human.