Federal Contaminated Site Risk Assessment in Canada: Supplemental Guidance for Soil Vapour Intrusion Assessment at Federal Contaminated Sites, Version 2.0

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  • Organization: Health Canada
  • Date published: February 2023
  • ISBN:  978-0-660-45526-6
  • Cat.:  H129-135/2022E-PDF

This guidance document (Federal Contaminated Site Risk Assessment in Canada: Supplemental Guidance for Soil Vapour Intrusion Assessment at Federal Contaminated Sites, Version 2.0) was prepared to provide guidance for federal departments.

Vapour intrusion is the migration of volatile or semi-volatile chemicals from contaminated groundwater and soil into the indoor air of buildings. This vapour intrusion guidance describes how to determine if subsurface vapours can potentially migrate into a building, and if so, if vapour intrusion poses a potential human health risk. The guidance is based on a framework that guides users through developing a conceptual site model, completing an initial screening and conducting a multiple lines of evidence investigation.

This vapour intrusion guidance supplements Health Canada's Federal Contaminated Site Risk Assessment in Canada: Guidance on Human Health Preliminary Quantitative Risk Assessment Version 3.0 (2021) and Part V: Guidance on Human Health Detailed Quantitative Risk Assessment for Chemicals (2010), which do not provide quantitative guidance for the soil vapour intrusion pathway. This guidance document has been updated from Version 1.0 (2010) to reflect more recent science. It provides a flexible, science-based approach for assessment of the soil vapour intrusion pathway, which relies on multiple lines of evidence to better support conclusions on associated potential human health risks and management decisions.

This document was prepared under the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP). FCSAP is a program of the Government of Canada designed to ensure improved and continuing federal environmental stewardship as it relates to contaminated sites located on federally owned or operated properties or non-federal lands for which the federal government has accepted full responsibility.

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