1. Introduction

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) invited 10 expert panelists to a workshop, which focused on the current state of science on soil-pica behavior--an issue that is relevant to the agency's ongoing work at many sites where people may be exposed to contaminated soils. The 2-day workshop occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 7-8, 2000, and focused on addressing three key issues: the prevalence of soil-pica behavior, soil ingestion rates for people who exhibit this behavior, and means for identifying people with this behavior.

This report summarizes the technical discussions among the expert panelists. The remainder of this introductory section describes the following topics in greater detail: ATSDR's concern about soil-pica behavior (Section 1.1), how the agency selected the expert panelists (Section 1.2) and briefed them (Section 1.3), the workshop charge and agenda (Section 1.4), and the organization of this report (Section 1.5).