During the past 20 years the EU legislation for the notification of chemicals has focussed on new chemicals and at the same time failed to cover the evaluation of existing chemicals in Europe. Therefore, in a new EU chemicals policy (REACH, Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) the European Commission proposes to evaluate 30,000 chemicals within a period of 15 years. We are providing estimates of the testing requirements based on our personal experiences during the past 20 years. A realistic scenario based on an in-depth discussion of potential toxicological developments and an optimised "tailor-made" testing strategy shows that to meet the goals of the REACH policy, animal numbers may be significantly reduced below 10 million if industry would use in-house data from toxicity testing, which are confidential, if non-animal tests would be used, and if information from quantitative structure activity relationships (QSARs) would be applied in substance-tailored testing schemes. The procedures for evaluating the reproductive toxicity of chemicals have the strongest impact on the total number of animals bred for testing under REACH. We are assuming both an active collaboration with our colleagues in industry and substantial funding of the development and validation of advanced non-animal methods by the EU Commission, specifically in reproductive and developmental toxicity.

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Peracetic acid (PAA) is a disinfectant considered for use in ballast water treatment, but its chemical behavior in such systems (i.e., saline waters) is largely unknown. In this study, the reactivity of PAA with halide ions (chloride and bromide) to form secondary oxidants (HOCl, HOBr) was investigated. For the PAA-chloride and PAA-bromide reactions, second-order rate constants of (1.47 ± 0.58) × 10(-5) and 0.24 ± 0.02 M(-1) s(-1) were determined for the formation of HOCl or HOBr, respectively. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which is always present in PAA solutions, reduced HOCl or HOBr to chloride or bromide, respectively. As a consequence, in PAA-treated solutions with [H2O2] > [PAA], the HOBr (HOCl) steady-state concentrations were low with a limited formation of brominated (chlorinated) disinfection byproducts (DBPs). HOI (formed from the PAA-iodide reaction) affected this process because it can react with H2O2 back to iodide. H2O2 is thus consumed in a catalytic cycle and leads to less efficient HOBr scavenging at even low iodide concentrations (<1 μM). In PAA-treated solutions with [H2O2] < [PAA] and high bromide levels, mostly brominated DBPs are formed. In synthetic water, bromate was formed from the oxidation of bromide. In natural brackish waters, bromoform (CHBr3), bromoacetic acid (MBAA), dibromoacetic acid (DBAA), and tribromoacetic acid (TBAA) formed at up to 260, 106, 230, and 89 μg/L, respectively for doses of 2 mM (ca. 150 mg/L) PAA and [H2O2] < [PAA]. The same brackish waters, treated with PAA with [H2O2] ≫ [PAA], similar to conditions found in commercial PAA solutions, resulted in no trihalomethanes and only low haloacetic acid concentrations.

No abstract

Differences in water quality from freshwater to seawater alter disinfection by-product formation during disinfection of ballast waters.