Abstract
The German Soil Protection Legislation (draft) proposes generic soil trigger levels and action levels to assess contaminated sites. This article presents results of a working group set up by the Bundl Länder-Arbeitsgemeinschaft “Bodenschutz” (LABO) and the Länder-Arbeitsgemeinschaft “Abfall” (LAGA). The report on key issues for assessing public health effects of contaminated land for 14 substances of prime importance also has been negotiated with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Leitenden Medizinalbeamten der Länder (AGLMB [health service]). The report introduces toxicological reference data indicating a virtually safe body dose and a factor deriving a hazardous body dose, which will be used to calculate soil trigger levels. Calculations are based on exposure estimates covering the inhalative andingestive routes of exposure. Results of the calculations are to be checked against soil background data.