Tag Archive for: environmental risk assessment

The European industry-academia network for revising and advancing the assessment of the soil microbial toxicity of pesticides (ARISTO)

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 […]

Read more →
Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment (PREMIER)Premier

New project started: ‘Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment’ (PREMIER)

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project PREMIER aims to develop a centralised, user-friendly digital assessment system accessible for all relevant stakeholders. PREMIER will also explore options to incorporate environment considerations earlier in the drug development process to inform drug design and to reduce the need of animal testing. ECT is involved in this project as […]

Read more →
Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment (PREMIER)Premier

Prioritisation and risk evaluation of medicines in the environment (PREMIER)

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 […]

Read more →
Environemtal fate and effects of water-soluble polymersK. Duis

Review on the environmental fate and effects of water-soluble synthetic organic polymers

Because of their usually high molecular weight, polymers are generally considered as being of low environmental concern and are, therefore, exempted from registration and evaluation within REACH. This exemption is currently being reviewed by the European Commission. Against this background, data on the environmental fate and effects of selected water-soluble synthetic organic polymers used in […]

Read more →
J. Römbke

Review: Environmental risk assessment of pesticides in tropical terrestrial ecosystems

Despite the increasing use of pesticides in tropical countries, research and legislative efforts have focused on their temperate counterparts. In the present publication, the literature on environmental risk assessment of pesticides in tropical terrestrial ecosystems is reviewed. Potential differences in pesticide risks between temperate and tropical regions are evaluated, and research needs for tropical regions […]

Read more →
Environmental risk or benefit? Comprehensive risk assessment of groundwater treated with nano Fe0-based Carbo-Iron®M. Weil

New publication: Environmental risk or benefit? Comprehensive risk assessment of groundwater treated with nano Fe0-based Carbo-Iron®

For the treatment of groundwater contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons, nano-scaled zero-valent iron (nano Fe0) represents an efficient alternative to other treatments as e.g. pump & treat. Upon selection of a suitable treatment method for a given groundwater a risk-cost-benefit analysis is performed. This analysis does only rarely consider the potential risk of the remediation method […]

Read more →
New publication: Compartment‐specific screening tools for persistence – potential role and application in the regulatory contextT. Junker

New publication: Compartment‐specific screening tools for persistence – potential role and application in the regulatory context

The persistence assessment under REACH relies on compartment‐specific degradation half‐lives derived from laboratory simulation studies with surface water, aquatic sediment or soil. Although these data are given priority, they are not available for most of the compounds. Therefore, according to the integrated assessment and testing strategy for persistence assessment, results from ready biodegradability tests are […]

Read more →
New developments in the toxicity testing of soil organisms – protecting soil biodiversityD. Leib

Further development of toxicity tests with soil organisms – protection of biodiversity in soils

The project objective was to identify and quantify uncertainties that occur in the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of pesticides, specifically for the soil compartment. The project was based on the assessment that the general approach of employing surrogate species and experimental setups to assess the effects of pesticides has certain shortcomings that affect the outcome […]

Read more →
Development and standardisation of an ecotoxicological test method using fungus gnat larvae for the risk assessment of genetically modified plantsK. Duis

Development and standardisation of an ecotoxicity test with fungus gnat larvae for the risk assessment of genetically modified plants

According to EU Directive 2001/18/EC, genetically modified organisms (GMO) must be assessed for potential risks to human health, animal and plant life, nature, and the environment prior to experimental release or market authorization. The concepts and methods used for this purpose must correspond to the state of the science and technology and consider the specific issues and characteristics of the testing of GMO […]

Read more →