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The number of products on the market containing engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) has increased significantly, and concerns have been raised regarding their ecotoxicological effects. Environmental safety assessments as well as relevant and reliable ecotoxicological data are required for the safe and sustainable use of ENPs. Although the number of publications on the ecotoxicological effects and uptake of ENPs is rapidly expanding, the applicability of the reported data for hazard assessment is questionable. A major knowledge gap is whether nanoparticle effects occur when test organisms are exposed to ENPs in aquatic test systems. Filling this gap is not straightforward, because of the broad range of ENPs and the different behavior of ENPs compared to “ordinary” (dissolved) chemicals in the ecotoxicity test systems. The risk of generating false negatives, and false positives, in the currently used tests is high, and in most cases difficult to assess. This Review outlines some of the pitfalls in the aquatic toxicity testing of ENPs which may lead to misinterpretation of test results. Response types are also proposed to reveal potential nanoparticle effects in the aquatic test organisms.

The ecotoxicity of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) widely used in for example automotive catalytic converters, is largely unknown. This study employs various characterization techniques and toxicity end points to investigate PtNP toxicity toward the green microalgae Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Growth rate inhibition occurred in standard ISO tests (EC values of 15-200 mg Pt/L), but also in a double-vial setup, separating cells from PtNPs, thus demonstrating shading as an important artifact for PtNP toxicity. Negligible membrane damage, but substantial oxidative stress was detected at 0.1-80 mg Pt/L in both algal species using flow cytometry. PtNPs caused growth rate inhibition and oxidative stress in P. subcapitata, beyond what was accounted for by dissolved Pt, indicating NP-specific toxicity of PtNPs. Overall, P. subcapitata was found to be more sensitive toward PtNPs and higher body burdens were measured in this species, possibly due to a favored binding of Pt to the polysaccharide-rich cell wall of this algal species. This study highlights the importance of using multimethod approaches in nanoecotoxicological studies to elucidate toxicity mechanisms, influence of NP-interactions with media/organisms, and ultimately to identify artifacts and appropriate end points for NP-ecotoxicity testing.

The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) is in the process of revising its guidance documents on how to address the challenges of ecotoxicological testing of nanomaterials. In these revisions, outset is taken in the hypothesis that ecotoxicological test methods, developed for soluble chemicals, can be made applicable to nanomaterials. European Research Council project EnvNano—Environmental Effects and Risk Evaluation of Engineered, which ran from 2011 to 2016, took another outset by assuming that: “The behaviour of nanoparticles in suspension is fundamentally different from that of chemicals in solution”. The aim of this paper is to present the findings of the EnvNano project and through these provide the scientific background for specific recommendations on how ECHA guidance could be further improved. Key EnvNano findings such as the need to characterize dispersion and dissolution rates in stock and test media have partially been addressed in the updated guidance. However, it has to be made clear that multiple characterization methods have to be applied to describe state of dispersion and dissolution over time and for various test concentration. More detailed information is called for on the specific characterization methods and techniques available and their pros and cons. Based on findings in EnvNano, we recommend that existing algal tests are supplemented with tests where suspensions of nanomaterials are aged for 1–3 days for nanomaterials that dissolve in testing media. Likewise, for daphnia tests we suggest to supplement with tests where (a) exposure is shortened to a 3 h pulse exposure in daphnia toxicity tests with environmentally hazardous metal and metal oxide nanomaterials prone to dissolution; and (b) food abundance is three to five times higher than normal, respectively. We further suggest that the importance of considering the impact of shading in algal tests is made more detailed in the guidance and that it is specified that determination of uptake, depuration and trophic transfer of nanomaterials for each commercialized functionalization of the nanomaterials is required. Finally, as an outcome of the project a method for assessing the regulatory adequacy of ecotoxicological studies of nanomaterials is proposed.

The aquatic ecotoxicity testing of nanoparticles is complicated by unstable exposure conditions resulting from various transformation processes of nanoparticles in aqueous suspensions. In this study, we investigated the influence of exposure timing on the algal test response to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), by reducing the incubation time and by aging the AgNPs in algal medium prior to testing. The freshwater green algae Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata were exposed to AgNO3, NM-300 K (a representative AgNP) and citrate stabilized AgNPs from two different manufacturers (AgNP1 and AgNP2) in a standard algal growth inhibition test (ISO 8692:2004) for 48 h and a short-term (2 h) 14C-assimilation test. For AgNO3, similar responses were obtained in the two tests, whereas freshly prepared suspensions of citrate stabilized AgNPs were less toxic in the 2-h tests compared to the 48-h tests. The 2-h test was found applicable for dissolved silver, but yielded non-monotonous concentration–response relationships and poor reproducibility for freshly prepared AgNP suspensions. However, when aging AgNPs in algal medium 24 h prior to testing, clear concentration–response patterns emerged and reproducibility increased. Prolonged aging to 48 h increased toxicity in the 2-h tests whereas aging beyond 48 h reduced toxicity. Our results demonstrate that the outcome of algal toxicity testing of AgNPs is highly influenced not only by the test duration, but also by the time passed from the moment AgNPs are added to the test medium. This time-dependency should be considered when nanomaterial dispersion protocols for ecotoxicity testing are developed.