News Archive | ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH

New publication: Toward sustainable environmental quality: priority research questions for Europe

August 2018

The United Nations’ sustainable development goals have been established to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Delivery of the sustainable development goals requires a healthy and productive environment. An understanding of the impacts of chemicals on environmental health is essential for sustainable environmental quality. However, current research on and regulation of […]

D. Leib

New publication: Novel egg life-stage test with Folsomia candida – a case study with cadmium

August 2018

A protocol for a reproduction test with the collembolan Folsomia candida was developed, starting exposure with eggs instead of juveniles as required by OECD test guideline 232. Accordingly, the exposure and, thus, the test duration was extended. The extended test starts with synchronisation of eggs in a thin soil layer on plaster of Paris, selection […]

D. Leib

New publication on potential synergistic interaction between fungicides in toxicity tests with Raphidocelis subcapitata

July 2018

Products used for plant protection or as biocides often contain more than one active substance together with numerous formulation additives. The environmental risk assessment for such commercial mixtures applies as default the concept of concentration addition. There is remaining regulatory concern, however, that underestimation of risks can occur if components in the mixture interact synergistically, […]

T. Junker

New publication: Prospective environmental risk assessment of mixtures in wastewater treatment plant efﬂuents

July 2018

The aquatic environment is continually exposed to a complex mixture of chemicals, with effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as one key source. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether environmental risk assessments addressing individual substances are sufficiently protective for such mixtures. Based on a literature review of chemicals reported to occur […]

Successful renewal of ECT‘s certificate of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)

June 2018

ECT’s GLP certificate, which comprises the categories 4 (Environmental toxicity studies on aquatic and terrestrial organisms) and 5 (Behaviour in water soil and air, bioaccumulation and metabolism), has been renewed in May 2018.

ECT at the 1st International earthworm congress

ECT at First International Earthworm Congress

June 2018

The ‘1st International Earthworm Congress’ (IEC 1) takes place in Shanghai (China) from 24 to 29 June 2018. Jörg Römbke is member of the scientific committee of this conference. In addition, ECT contributes with the following two presentations: […]

ECT at the SETAC Europe 28th Annual Meeting

April 2018

Meet ECT at the SETAC Europe 28th Annual Meeting (‘Responsible and innovative research for environmental quality’) that takes places in Rome, Italy, from May 13th to 17th, 2018. It addition to several platform and poster presentations (see below), ECT is presenting its work and activities at its own booth.

Critical review: Standard methods for the assessment of structural and functional diversity of soil organisms

April 2018

The lack of standardised methods to study soil organisms prevents comparisons across datasets and hampers the development of new global and regional experiments and assessments. Standardised methods are also needed to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic stressors, such as chemicals, on soil organism communities in the regulatory context. The objective of this critical review is […]

New publication: Use of prospective and retrospective risk assessment methods for chemical mixtures in wastewater discharges

March 2018

The SETAC Pellston Workshop ‘Simplifying environmental mixtures – an aquatic exposure-based approach via exposure scenarios’ addressed the need to improve mixture assessments by considering different exposure scenarios related to land use. Recently, a series of papers from this workshop was published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, including the work ‘Use of prospective and retrospective risk assessment methods that simplify chemical mixtures associated with treated domestic wastewater discharges’, to which Anja Coors contributed.

New publication: Proposal for a monitoring concept for veterinary medicinal products with PBT properties, using parasiticides as a case study

February 2018

A proposal was prepared for the post-authorisation monitoring of veterinary medicinal products, in particular parasiticides. Such a monitoring might especially be useful for parasiticides identified as PBT substances, i.e., substances that are toxic (T), persist in the environment (P) and bioaccumulate (B). Based on a literature search, issues are discussed that have to be considered […]