Trends and challenges in risk assessment of environmental contaminants

Abstract

Since its inception in the 1960s, risk assessment of environmental contaminants has evolved and expanded enormously. The present article reviews its origins, gives an overview of the current state of the art, and provides a future perspective by identifying critical knowledge gaps. Many of the risk assessment principles that were introduced between the 1960s and 1980s are still being applied today, and many contamination problems have been solved or reduced. However, new issues have arisen which pose a challenge to the field of risk assessment, e.g. engineered nanoparticles and cumulative exposures. New risk assessment techniques and approaches are required to address these issues, e.g. appropriate dose metrics for exposure to nanoparticles, tools to predict interaction effects in mixtures, and individual-based models that can predict cumulative exposures.

Toward the definition of specific protection goals for the environmental risk assessment of chemicals: A perspective on environmental regulation in Europe

“…The importance of retrospective impact assessment (e.g., as undertaken under the WFD) for informing prospective ERA is widely recognized (Ragas 2011;Boxall et al 2012;EC 2012a). Cross-validation of pro-and retrospective assessments is advocated in the PPPR and other chemical regulations, including the BPR and the Pharmacovigilance Regulation (PVR 2010) under the MPHU Directive.…”

“….for improving the realism of exposure and effect assessment and for reducing the uncertainty in ERA" (EC 2012a). The complementary use of retrospective and prospective approaches is also recognized as important for improving ERA (Ragas 2011;Boxall et al 2012;EC 2012a). In Europe, prospective and retrospective ERA approaches are incorporated within different regulations and directives.…”

Predicting Chemical End-of-Life Scenarios Using Structure-Based Classification Models

“…9 Data collection is even more uncertain at the EoL stage due to the lack of knowledge required to track the chemical flows through the EoL management chain. 10 Material flow analysis can help map EoL flow movements and EoL activities, 11 offering the transfer factors for all EoL activities when multiple entities are involved. Then, those transfer factors provided by the material flow analysis can be used either for life cycle impact assessment or exposure scenario identification.…”

“…In addition, the increasing number of chemicals circulating in the market means that governments face challenges in identifying all chemical exposure scenarios with unreasonable risks, thereby not ruling quickly with conditions and restrictions for their safer use . Data collection is even more uncertain at the EoL stage due to the lack of knowledge required to track the chemical flows through the EoL management chain …”

A 3D ecotoxi-topological profile: Using concentration-time-response surfaces to show peroxidase activity in Zea mays (L.) exposed to aluminium or arsenic in hydroponic conditions

“…Nevertheless, most experimental data generated in ecotoxicology studies assess biological responses over a specific exposure time under diverse toxicant concentrations, and the exposure time is represented only in the form of the measured endpoint (e.g., 72-h EC50) (Brooks et al, 2019;Mancini, 1983;OCDE, 1997;Van den Brink et al, 2019). It is possible that different conclusions on the effect of the same toxicant concentration could be derived for different exposure durations (Barata et al, 1999;Byrne and Maher, 2019;Hickey et al, 1991;Ragas, 2011). In this respect, concentration-time-response surfaces could provide a more complete presentation of the available data, and could reveal crucial information in environmental studies, including risk management, where the aim is to determine precise quantitative ecotoxicity values (Barata et al, 1999;Lee et al, 1995;Paumgartten, 1993;Sun et al, 1995).…”