Low-risk pesticides including biopesticides consisting of plant extracts, semiochemicals such as pheromones and allelochemicals, and microbial pesticides are gaining ground in the global market, where they have started to substitute synthetic pesticides. In addition, phages, protists, microbial consortia and double-stranded (ds)-RNA pesticides are emerging low-risk solutions that are expected to reach the market in coming […]
PRORISK is a European Training Network funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It creates a platform for training early-stage researchers in the field of advanced environmental risk assessment. Environmental risk assessment procedures are nowadays changing, incorporating for instance mechanistic, ecological, and socio-economic information. Consequently, risk assessments are becoming more comprehensive. […]
According to Directive 2008/98/EG in connection with Decision 2000/532/EC (European List of Wastes, LoW), waste has to be classified as hazardous or non-hazardous. The LoW contains ‘absolute hazardous entries’ (wastes that are hazardous without further assessment), ‘absolute non-hazardous entries’ (wastes that are non-hazardous without further assessment) and ‘mirror entries’ (wastes that can be classified as […]
The European Commission has imposed a stringent regulatory scheme for pesticide authorisation, which includes an assessment of potential risks for aquatic organisms and terrestrial macro-organisms. However, the assessment of the toxicity of pesticides on soil microorganisms relies on a protocol that does not identify effects on key microbial functions and on microbial diversity. As acknowledged […]
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project ‘Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment’ (PREMIER) aims to develop a centralised, user-friendly and transparent digital assessment system accessible for all relevant stakeholders such as regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical industry, water managers and environmental non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, PREMIER will explore the options to incorporate environment considerations earlier […]
The currently applied environmental risk assessment procedure for pesticides in the European Union (EU) is highly standardised. To assess effects on soil organisms at the lowest tier, just one test substrate is used, OECD artificial soil, a mixture of sand, kaolinite clay and Sphagnum peat. Moistened and adjusted to neutral pH, this substrate is used […]
Prior to releasing genetically modified plants (GMPs) into the environment and placing them on the market in the European Union, an environmental risk assessment has to be performed according to Directive 2001/18/EC. Based on the results of a previous project conducted from 2012 to 2016 (for more information, see the project description and the publication […]
The first aim of the project was to assess whether the existing OECD test guidelines for ready biodegradability of chemicals (OECD test guidelines 301 A–D and 310) can be harmonized. The gained insights were discussed at an international expert workshop in April 2019. Laboratory experiments were performed for five test substances to verify the impact […]
The collection and assessment of the diversity of soil invertebrates has made significant progress in recent years, for example at the European level in the framework of the EU project ‘EcoFinders’. Above all, the great influence of soil organisms on providing the ecological functions of the soil has been emphasized (for example, the maintenance of […]
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) represent an important group in the class of carbon-based nanomaterials. Their physical characteristics make them highly suitable for use in filtration methods, and lab-scaled applications have been very promising. However, large-scale CNT-based nanoporous membranes for application in industrial processes are not yet available. The objective of the present project is the development […]
Ralf Ketelhut
Premier
D. Leib
K. Duis
T. Junker
University of Aarhus