Mobility Studies

Mobility Studies evaluate a test substance’s potential for adsorption to soil, sediments and sludge. Mobility studies estimate a test substance’s movement in the natural environment and the data is used to determine what environmental compartment the test substance will migrate to and its possibility to contaminate ground water. Mobility tests are conducted by Smithers using EPA and OECD Test Guidelines for Adsorption/Desorption and Soil Column Leaching.

Soil Adsorption Test

Smithers provides adsorption / desorption testing in soils, sediment and activated sludge. We source soils from multiple geographies, including the US, Europe, South America and Asia. Endpoints include %sorption, K_d, K_des and K_oc. Endpoints such as K_om and Freudlich Isotherm Constants, KF can be determined depending on specific client designs.

(Aged) Soil Column Leaching Studies

Soil column leaching testing measures the distance a test substance travels down a water-saturated soil column. The test is generally conducted with a reference substance that has a known migration potential and adsorption coefficient so relative mobility factor can be calculated and reported. Testing is performed according to OECD and EPA Test Guidelines using appropriate soils. Specific to EU submissions, attention is given to refining the adsorption coefficients of test substances with very low K_oc values. Aged column leaching tests are designed with a pre-incubation period of up to 30 days in soil prior to applying the treated soil to the soil column to obtain the leaching potential of the test substance and its metabolites.