Concluding Remarks and Research Needs

A key motivation for this handbook arose from the different perceptions of scientists and regulators of the scientific advances made during the last 30 years in the field of bioavailability of organic chemicals in soil and sediment. This last chapter provides a distillation of the general messages extracted from the individual chapters from this handbook, by answering the following questions: (1) Is bioavailability science ready for use in regulation? (2) How should bioavailability be measured? And (3) how should it be implemented? We conclude the chapter with the research needs covering the knowledge gaps that still remain after this effort, focusing on the methodologies for measuring bioavailability, the environmental risks of non-bioavailable compounds, and the innovative remediation of contaminated waters, sediments, and soils.