March 9, 2026 by Iain Wilson
The updated bio-met bioavailability tool (v6.0) is now live! bio-met is a ‘user-friendly’ bioavailability tool for cobalt, copper, lead, nickel and zinc based on the Biotic Ligand Models (BLM) for these metals that calculates Bioavailability Factors (BioF) and Local HC5 values for metals based on site-specific information for three water quality parameters: pH, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and calcium (Ca) concentration. The tool is a collaboration between wca, ARCHE consulting, the International Copper Association, NiPERA, International Zinc Association, International Lead Association and the Cobalt Institute.
The latest version of the tool includes both technical and usability updates to the tool. Technical updates include a revision of the look-up tables for Co, Ni, Pb and Zn to ensure that the included HC5-values, and as such the bio-met output, reflect the most up-to-date effects assessment methodologies for these metals. In addition, the validation ranges of the different metals have also been adapted to reflect these of the latest bioavailability models. The major usability changes include allowing users to select the metal(s) to be assessed allowing for only information of interest to be generated, and to improve the processing time, the addition of an export function for easier review of the data, and a built-in hardness-to-Ca converter. All warning flags and guidance have been updated and embedded within the tool to better assist the user and the results of an assessment as to when bio-met provides predictions, based on results from the full BLMs have been incorporated. The guidance document has also been reviewed and updated to reflect all the changes applied to bio-met v6.0.
The updated tool is available here and full documentation and further information is available at the bio-met website. Please contact us if you would like to discuss the bioavailability of metals with one of our team.