Mechanistic effect models for ecological risk assessment of chemicals (MEMoRisk)—a new SETAC-Europe Advisory Group

Assessing triclosan-induced ecological and trans-generational effects in natural phytoplankton communities: a trait-based field method

“…ERA practises are important aspects of the sustainable management of chemicals (ECHA 2012). However, current testing and risk assessment paradigms have provided a stepwise simplistic scheme whose lack of capability for projecting the risk to complex biological systems is becoming increasingly evident Dalkvist et al 2009;Preuss et al 2009;Artigas et al 2012).…”

CREAM: a European project on mechanistic effect models for ecological risk assessment of chemicals

“…Current risk assessments are mainly based on ecotoxicological endpoints at the level of individual organisms, but according to the EU directives, the protection goal aims at achieving sustainable populations (European Commission 2002a, 2002bForbes et al 2009;Preuss et al 2009a; Thorbek et al 2009). Population-level effects depend not only on exposure and toxicity, but also on important ecological factors that are impossible to fully address empirically.…”

“…The CREAM consortium represents the three main sectors involved in chemical risk assessment, i.e., academia (universities and research institutes in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and The Netherlands), large agrochemical companies (Syngenta, BASF, and Bayer CropScience), two consulting firms (RifCon and gaiac), and five regulatory authorities (United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands). Virtually all partners are active members of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and of the new SETAC Europe Advisory Group Mechanistic Effect Models for Ecological Risk Assessment of Chemicals ("MEMoRisk"; Preuss et al 2009a). Thus, CREAM is a truly concerted action representing the critical mass and diversity in terms of sectors involved, countries, and individual projects.…”

Integrating population modeling into ecological risk assessment

“…However, both industry and regulators are showing increasing interest in exploring the potential of such models in a risk assessment context as evidenced in several of recent initiatives (e.g., Munns et al 2008;Forbes et al 2009;Grimm et al 2009;Preuss et al 2009). There are several reasons that the timing is right to integrate population modeling into ERA.…”