Persistent bioaccumulative and toxic

In terms of environmental metrics to assess processes, it is hopefully clear that a considerable testing burden exists to assess potential environmental hazards that lead to a credible risk assessment. At a first pass, one would typically screen compounds from an environmental hazard perspective to assess their tendency for persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity. Depending on the final application of the compoimd, one might avoid commercial production of a particular compound, or one might devise processes that would use the... 

Benchmark 2 continues the emphasis on persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity, but at lower threshold values. In addition. Benchmark 2 includes flammability and explosiveness. It is anticipated that many chemicals will not move past Benchmark 2 because of the broad scope of hazards and challenging threshold values included in the Green Screen. 

US EPA (2007) Fact Sheet L Multimedia Strategy for Priority Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals. [Online - accessed 1 May 2007] Available from URL http //www.epa.gov/ pbt/pubs/fact.htm... 

Reducing the presence of the most persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals in hazardous wastes by 50% by the year 2005. 

USEPA (2008) Persistent bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) Chemical Program. DDT. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Available from www.epa.gov... 

Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic and Very Persistent and Very Bioaccumulative Substances... 

Authorisation will also be required for persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) substances. The PBT and vPvB criteria are defined in Annex XII of the Regulation (Table 7). There are subtle differences in the... 

ECR Existing Chemicals Regulation PBT Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic... 

Commenting ona January 5,1999 proposal, environmental groups in early April called again on EPA to lower its proposed Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting threshold to zero for certain chemicals. The chemicals include mercury, dioxins, and lead. Currently facilities are only required to report chemical releases if they manufacture or process at least 25,000 pounds or otherwise use 10,000 pounds annually of a fisted TRI chemical. The environmental advocates argued that any releases of chemicals considered to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic should be reported as a threat to public health. This abstract includes all the information contained in the original article. 

The chlorinated chemicals assessed do not have the same risk profile. For the more volatile chemicals the safety margins between the actual exposure and the level at which no effect on the environment would be expected is quite high. For more persistent chemicals there is a need to look to the environmental compartment where they can be accumulated (mainly in sediments and biota). For some of these chemicals the safety margin is quite low and in worst-case situations serious effects may occur. For the very persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (like dioxins, PCBs and DDT), acceptable environmental concentrations are so low and difficult to control that the industry is committed to reducing as far as possible releases to the environment through application of Best Available Techniques (BAT), mainly with respect to dioxins. For other chemicals (PCBs, DDT), production has already been halted for some years. 

The so-called persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are the subject of the Rio Declaration (1994) and the Stockholm Convention (2001) these international agreements (yet to be ratified in all signatory countries, including the United States) call for the elimination from production of 12 persistent chemicals, including the chlorinated pesticides and PCBs mentioned above (all of which have already been eliminated from production in the United States). Current regulatory efforts in the European Union and the United States place emphasis on elimination or restriction of all PBTs (persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals). 

The Swedish Classification Scheme initiated in 2005 by the Swedish Association of Pharmacy Industries (LIF), the Swedish Medical Products Agency, Apoteket (National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies), the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and the Stockholm County Council, take in account Persistence, Bioaccumulation and Toxicity (PBT) characteristics of pharmaceutical products. This voluntary scheme looks at the environmental hazard and the associated risk of pharmaceutical products. The environmental risk is calculated based on the ratio PEC/PNEC according to the EMEA guideline [17,124, 127]. The obtained information is only available on the website www.fss.se, since due to European restrictions it is not possible to include warning labels on the packaging of medications [17]. 

Name persistent environmental contaminants (have various names depending on agency - i.e. US EPA persistent bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) or United Nations persistent organic pollutant (POP)... 

US Environmental Protection Agency - Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Chemical Program. Online. Available HTTP (accessed 9 April 2003). 

While the assessments of the chemicals in the 14 mixtures indicated that the alternatives had a lower level of concern for persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity compared with pentaBDE, each chemical was of concern for at least one of the key hazard endpoints and had at least some potential routes of exposure. 

These relationships allow for screening and ranking of toxicity so that the least toxic option may be used if deemed appropriate. They are applied in many jurisdictions for regulatory use in the prediction of ecological effects (and fate) of chemicals when there are no actual toxicity data and decisions need to be made about their use [99]. QSARs have been developed, for example, to predict which chemicals may exhibit persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity (PBT) properties, or be very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) [99]. These methods have been applied to the prediction of chemicals that fall under the European REACH initiative and also high production volume (HPV) chemicals [99]. Currently available QSARs for predicting a compound s fall into two general classes those that have been developed for a nonspecific mode of action, and those that have been developed for specific types or classes of chemicals [99]. 

If the pharmaceutical fulfills the criteria for PBT (Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic) and/or vPvB (very Persistent and very Bioaccumulative), the following phrase is added The substance fulfills the EU criteria for PBT/vPvB classification. 

Maruya KA, Vetter W, Wakeham SG, Lee RF, Francendese L (2000) In Lipnick RL, Hermens JLM, Jones KC, Muir DCG (eds) Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals fate and exposure (ACS Symp Ser 772). American Chemical Society, Washington, DC... 

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