From Bioavailability Science to Regulation of Organic Chemicals

Abstract

(93) In order to finalise the procedure in due time, the Agency should submit its opinions on the suggested action and its impact on the basis of a draft opinion prepared by a rapporteur.(94) In order to speed up the procedure for restrictions, the Commission should prepare its draft amendment within a specific time limit of receiving the Agency's opinions.(95) The Agency should be central to ensuring that chemicals legislation and the decision-making processes and scientific basis underlying it have credibility with all stakeholders and the public. The Agency should also play a pivotal role in coordinating communication around this Regulation and in its implementation. The confidence in the Agency of the Community institutions, the Member States, the general public and interested

Contaminant release from aged microplastic

“…This fraction can be described by the portion of compounds that can desorb in the relevant time frames. [18] Aging of plastic particles and increasing contact time may alter the available fraction. Usually, compounds with high water solubility show high concentrations in the aqueous phase at the beginning of leaching experiments, followed by a steep decrease of concentration due to exhaustion of the bulk phase.…”

Subcellular partitioning profiles and metallothionein levels in indigenous clams Moerella iridescens from a metal-impacted coastal bay

“…Correspondingly, metabolic availability of metals has been extended holistically from geochemical considerations alone to encompass the fate and speciation of contaminants within the receptor organism, and described by a "three-compartment model" of interlinked equilibria or processes, where besides the first compartment related to essentially physicochemical sediment-water partitioning in the environmental surroundings and the second compartment between the organism taking up the metal and environmental metals at the absorptive surfaces (i.e., metal uptake). The third compartment represents the "sequestered"-"free" metal equilibrium within the tissues or cells of the organism taking up the metal (Ortega-Calvo et al, 2015). In the present study, the induction of MTs and the progressive increase in Cu, Zn and Cd concentrations in the HSP fraction along the bioaccumulation gradients may signify the decrease of metabolic availability occurring within M. iridescens.…”

Evaluating porewater polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon–related toxicity at a contaminated sediment site using a spiked field‐sediment approach

“…The potential for near real-time assessment of sediment toxicity by this approach could provide rapid and economical initial assessment of PAH-contaminated sites to help guide remediation, and it could be incorporated into a tiered regulatory framework that takes into consideration the importance of contaminant partitioning and bioavailability (Ortega-Calvo et al 2015). Although the PAH-biosensor approach shows promise, additional research is needed to confirm the utility of the technique for rapid field assessment.…”

“…Toxicity measures differed between cove and harbor sediments when calculated using P PAH SED concentrations (i.e., 3.2 times higher in harbor) but were nearly identical when calculated using P PAH PW concentrations (i.e., 1.2 times higher in harbor). These results are similar to earlier sediment studies that showed that measurement of contaminants exhaustively extracted from whole sediments does not accurately reflect the bioavailable or toxic component (Ehlers and Luthy 2004;Cui et al 2013;Ortega-Calvo et al 2015). Figure 4 provides mortality response curves (logistic regression) for the 3 exposure series by plotting mortality against log sediment P PAH concentrations and log porewater P PAH concentrations.…”