The Environment Agency has recently published its revised Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment technical guidance (commonly known as CLEA) after a period of consultation. The new guidance will help in the assessment of potential risks to human health from long-term exposure to soil contamination.

What does the final guidance contain?

The revised final CLEA guidance replaces the versions released in August 2008 after a 3-month period of evaluation. The updated guidance includes:

• ‘Human health toxicological assessment of contaminants in soil’ (the TOX Guidance Report).

• 'Updated technical background to the CLEA model’ (the CLEA Report), - which replaces CLR10 ‘The Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) model: technical basis and algorithms’.

• ‘A review of body weight and height data used within the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment model (CLEA)’.

• CLEA Software Version 1.04 and ‘CLEA Software (Version 1.04) Handbook’, that assessors can use to help estimate exposure and assess risks. The beta status of the software has been removed.

You can find a summary of the changes made to the CLEA technical guidance and software on the Environment Agency website www.environment-agency.gov.uk