Terrestrial invertebrate tests

Tests with three soil invertebrate groups, lumbricid earthworms, enchytraeids and springtails, have been ratified. All three tests were developed originally for testing the toxicity of plant protection products in an artificial soil consisting of 10% peat, 

Among the many published studies that have used the earthworm reproduction test to measure chemical toxicity, only a few have assessed contaminated field soils. Two studies have been conducted along the contamination gradients from two smelting works (Spurgeon and Hopkin, 1995 Posthuma et al., 1998). Both studies found that earthworm reproduction was affected by elevated metal concentrations in soil close to the point source. Studies in contaminated soils have indicated that reproduction can be influenced also by the soil characteristics (Saterbak et al., 1999). This makes the choice of suitable control soils vital for the assessment. 

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Van Gestel, C.A.M. and Van Straalen, N.M. (1994) Ecotoxicological test systems for terrestrial invertebrates. In Ecotoxicology of Soil Organisms, Donker, M.H., Eijsackers, H. and Heim-bach, F. (eds), pp. 205-228. CRC Press, Boca Raton FL. 

CNTs have been studied for cancer therapies despite the fact that these have been shown to accumulate to toxic levels within the organs of diverse animal models and different cell lines (Fiorito et al., 2006 Tong and Cheng, 2007). The molecular and cellular mechanisms for toxicity of carbon nanotubes have not been fully clarified. Furthermore, toxicity must be examined on the basis of multiple routes of administration (i.e., pulmonary, transdermal, ocular, oral, and intravenous) and on multiple species mammals, lower terrestrial animals, aquatic animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates), and plants (both terrestrial and aquatic). A basic set of tests for risk assessment of nanomaterials has been put forward (Nano risk framework). 

FIGURE 12.2 Derivation of Eco-SSL. Denotes directly calculated benchmarks established in definitive toxicity tests with soil invertebrates or terrestrial plants. 

The proposed ETVs developed from toxicity benchmark data for terrestrial plants and soil invertebrates are shown in Table 12.5 and Table 12.6, respectively. Separate ETVs were derived for freshly amended MC (comparable to new releases of MC into the soil environment) and for MC that were weathered and aged in soils (comparable to MC released into the environment long term). Results of toxicity tests with individual MC weathered and aged in soil (Tables 12.1 and 12.2) showed... 

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