Prediction of Ecological No-Effect Concentrations for Initial Risk Assessment: Combining Substance-Specific Data and Database Information

Roelofs, Willem; Huijbregts, Mark A. J.; Jager, Tjalling; Ragas, A.M.J.

doi:10.1897/1551-5028(2003)022<1387:poenec>2.0.co;2

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…(2004) using a unicellular green algae to assess the inhibition of reproduction after 24 h. The ACR calculated as the ratio of EC 50 to NOEC was 9·4. Several data from other single‐species assays also show ACR values around 10 (Isnard 1998; Roelofs et al . 2003; Ahlers et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Single‐species tests are reproducible, but do not provide information on differences in species sensitivity or the effects of species interaction. The variation of sensitivities may be addressed by species sensitivity distributions (Kooijman 1987), which assume that variation in chemical sensitivity among species can be described by a statistical distribution (Roelofs et al . 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A species sensitivity distribution may be used to estimate the chemical concentration at which 95% of the species would be unaffected. This concentration is called 5% hazardous concentration (HC 5 ) (Roelofs et al . 2003) and is used in probabilistic approaches to quantify environmental risks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pollution‐induced community tolerance as a measure of species interaction in toxicity assessment

McClellan

Altenburger

Schmitt‐Jansen

2008

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary 1.The assessment of the environmental hazards posed by chemical pollutants typically results from single-species tests that are extrapolated to ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to compare this type of extrapolation for a herbicide with the chronic effects that may be observed at a community level and to evaluate currently applied risk assessment strategies for their ability to predict chemical effects on complex communities. 2. Freshwater periphyton communities, grown in indoor aquaria, were exposed to the pollutant diuron for 3 months. Acute toxic effects of diuron were detected as photosynthesis inhibition using quenching analysis of chla-fluorescence. Chronic effects of the herbicide were observed in terms of changes in biomass and algal class composition as well as pollution-induced community tolerance (PICT). The PICT concept is based on a chemical exerting selection pressure on a community and therefore eliminating sensitive species. As a result, the measured community tolerance increases. 3. Short-term effects of diuron arise from 4-9 μ g L -1 as half-maximal effect concentration (EC 50 ). It is further shown that diuron concentrations down to 0·08 μ g L -1 caused chronic effects in two independent microcosm studies. The observed threshold concentration of 0·08 μ g L -1 still caused changes in biomass and class composition as well as an increased community tolerance. The determined EC 50 values increased by a factor of 2-3 in diuron-exposed periphyton communities. This threshold value could not be predicted by advanced extrapolation methods such as species sensitivity distribution or acute-to-chronic effect ratios. 4. Synthesis and applications . The chronic community-level effects of the pollutant diuron were not predictable from single-species tests. However, regulations such as the EC Water Framework Directive or the EC-REACH process (Registrations, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) rely on this type of information. The management of chemicals in the environment should be based upon higher-tier assessment tools. Species interaction, detectable and quantifiable by the PICT methodology, may serve as a prognostic tool in chemical hazard assessment when extrapolating effects from single-species tests to community level.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pollution‐induced community tolerance as a measure of species interaction in toxicity assessment

McClellan

Altenburger

Schmitt‐Jansen

2008

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Uncertainty in the toxicity parameter μ x is determined by describing the uncertainty in the estimated mean of a sample from a normal distribution when true variance is unknown (Roelofs et al 2003)…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the uncertainty of σ j , the uncertainty of σ x has to be accounted for as well. This uncertainty is described with a X distribution (Roelofs et al 2003) where σ TOX,x is the standard deviation of the toxicity data derived for that specific chemical and X 2 n ‐1 represents a standard X 2 distribution with n — 1 degrees of freedom.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty in msPAF‐based ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment

Zelm

Huijbregts

Harbers

et al. 2007

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Ecotoxicological effect factors are part of the analysis of relative impacts by chemical contaminants on ecosystems. Uncertainty distributions, represented by the 90% confidence interval, belonging to ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems were determined. This study includes 869 high production volume chemicals, related to 7 nonspecific toxic modes of action (TMoAs). The ecotoxicological effect factors are divided into a TMoA-specific part and a chemical-specific part. The 90% confidence interval of the TMoA-specific part of the effect factor ranges from 23 orders of magnitude for acrylate toxicity to 2 orders of magnitude for nonpolar narcosis. The range in the TMoA-specific part of the effect factor is mainly caused by uncertainty in the spread in toxic sensitivity between species (sigma(j)). Average uncertainty in the chemical-specific part of the effect factors depends on the number of species tested and ranges on average from a factor of 5 for more than 3 species tested to a factor of about 1,000 for 2 species tested. Average uncertainty in the ecotoxicological effect factors ranges from a factor of 100 for more than 3 species tested to a factor of nearly 10,000 for 2 species tested. It is recommended that the ecotoxicological effect factor of a chemical is based on toxicity data of at least 4 species.

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Development and validation of a quantitative structure–activity relationship for chronic narcosis to fish

Claeys¹,

Iaccino²,

Janssen

et al. 2013

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Vertebrate testing under the European Union's regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances (REACH) is discouraged, and the use of alternative nontesting approaches such as quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) is encouraged. However, robust QSARs predicting chronic ecotoxicity of organic compounds to fish are not available. The Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) Class Program is a computerized predictive system that estimates the acute and chronic toxicity of organic compounds for several chemical classes based on their log octanol-water partition coefficient (K OW ). For those chemical classes for which chronic training data sets are lacking, acute to chronic ratios are used to predict chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms. Although ECOSAR reaches a high score against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) principles for QSAR validation, the chronic QSARs in ECOSAR are not fully compliant with OECD criteria in the framework of REACH or CLP (classification, labeling, and packaging) regulation. The objective of the present study was to develop a chronic ecotoxicity QSAR for fish for compounds acting via nonpolar and polar narcosis. These QSARs were built using a database of quality screened toxicity values, considering only chronic exposure durations and relevant end points. After statistical multivariate diagnostic analysis, literature-based, mechanistically relevant descriptors were selected to develop a multivariate regression model. Finally, these QSARs were tested for their acceptance for regulatory purposes and were found to be compliant with the OECD principles for the validation of a QSAR.

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Prediction of Ecological No-Effect Concentrations for Initial Risk Assessment: Combining Substance-Specific Data and Database Information

Cited by 19 publications

References 32 publications

Pollution‐induced community tolerance as a measure of species interaction in toxicity assessment

Pollution‐induced community tolerance as a measure of species interaction in toxicity assessment

Uncertainty in msPAF‐based ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment

Development and validation of a quantitative structure–activity relationship for chronic narcosis to fish

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