Development and use of the zinc bioavailability assessment tool (draft)

Setting appropriate environmental standards for metals is particularly challenging because the proportion of metal in the water environment that is bound up in forms that do not pose a risk of toxic effects on water animals and plants varies.  To overcome this problem, UKTAG has developed standards that take account of factors that affect what proportion of the metal at a site is available for uptake by water plants and animals – the bioavailable metal. The paper below sets out UKTAG’s recommendations on the method for calculating the bioavailable fraction of the zinc in the water environment.