Ecotoxicology studies

EinaHy, the ecotoxicological studies, designed to assess the impact of the substance on the environment, embrace acute toxicity tests to fish and Daphnia, and a battery of tests for the biodegradabiUty of the substance and its biological oxygen demand characteristics. 

Sometimes for some very potent pollutants analytical methodologies provide limits of detection (LODs) higher than the concentrations that cause effects, as derived from ecotoxicological studies. Therefore efforts in the field of analytical chemistry (see Sect. 2) are focused on making available the necessary analytical capabilities to detect pollutants at the required low levels found in the environment. This was the case of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), sunscreens/UV filters, etc. few years ago. However, this list is likely to increase with new family candidates. 

Ferrando, M.D., C.R. Janssen, E. Andreu, and G. Persoone. 1993. Ecotoxicological studies with the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. III. The effects of chemicals on the feeding behavior. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Safety 26 1-9. 

Amiard, J.C., C. Amiard-Triquet, B. Berthet, and C. Metayer. 1986. Contribution to the ecotoxicological study of cadmium, lead, copper and zinc in the mussel Mytilus edulis. I. Field study. Mar. Biol. 90 425 431. 

Ecotoxicological studies Acute toxicity to fish study... 

Relevance the extent to which a test is appropriate for a particular hazard or risk assessment. For example the appropriate species and route of exposure should have been studied in a toxicology study or relevant species have to be studied for ecotoxicology studies. 

In the past few years the use of rotifers in ecotoxicological studies has substantially increased. The main endpoints used are mortality, reproduction, behavior, cellular biomarkers, mesocosms, and species diversity in natural populations [126]. Several workers have used Brachionus calyciflorus for various types of toxicity assessments. Thus, comprehensive evaluation of approximately 400 environmental samples for the toxicity assessment of solid waste elutriates, monitoring wells, effluents, sediment pore water, and sewage sludge was carried out by Persoone and Janssen [127]. The mortality of rotifers hatched from cysts is evaluated after 24 hours exposure. This microbiotest has been commercialized in a Rotoxkit F [128,129]. 

The chemistry auditor usually audits only the analytical chemistry portions for health effects or ecotoxicology studies and the entire data file for environmental, residue, product chemistry, and metabolism studies. 

Good Laboratory Practice and Quality Assurance procedures required for acute and chronic health effect studies can be used for acute and chronic mammalian, aquatic and avian ecotoxicology studies. 

The requirements for ecotoxicology studies vary little from the requirements for health effect studies. Laboratories that have adequate facilities, equipment, staff, and procedures for health effect studies, with adequate training of their staff in specific areas of ecotoxicology, could conduct these tests. 

Another area I want to discuss is the length of ecotoxicology studies. This generally is dependant on the type of test. 

Now that we have discussed the terminology and the types of tests involved, I want to emphasize some areas that should be well documented in an ecotoxicology study. 

Again, the environmental and testing conditions for many wild mammalian and avian species are compatible with the domestic mammalian studies that have been done in some laboratories for years. Since some of the ecotoxicology studies concentrate on the nonlethal effects of the test substance on the test organisms, it is important that the test conditions and evaluation criteria be accurately described and the staff be very aware of sublethal effects of the toxicant on the test species. 

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