Sustainable risk management of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewaters

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2009 The Royal Society.The presence of emerging contaminants in municipal wastewaters, particularly endocrine-disrupting compounds such as oestrogenic substances, has been the focus of much public concern and scientific attention in recent years. Due to the scientific uncertainty still surrounding their effects, the Precautionary Principle could be invoked for the interim management of potential risks. Therefore, precautionary prevention risk-management measures could be employed to reduce human exposure to the compounds of concern. Steroid oestrogens are generally recognized as the most significant oestrogenically active substances in domestic sewage effluent. As a result, the UK Environment Agency has championed a ‘Demonstration Programme’ to investigate the potential for removal of steroid oestrogens and alkylphenol ethoxylates during sewage treatment. Ecological and human health risks are interdependent, and ecological injuries may result in increased human exposures to contaminants or other stressors. In this context of limiting exposure to potential contaminants, examining the relative contribution of various compounds and pathways should be taken into account when identifying effective risk-management measures. In addition, the explicit use of ecological objectives within the scope of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive poses new challenges and necessitates the development of ecosystem-based decision tools. This paper addresses some of these issues and proposes a species sensitivity distribution approach to support the decision-making process related to the need and implications of sewage treatment work upgrade as risk-management measures to the presence of oestrogenic compounds in sewage effluent

Obituary for Tamara Grummt

Tamara Grummt passed away on January 26, 2020 in Oelsnitz/Vogtland, Germany. Tamara was one of the scientific pioneers in the field of environmental toxicology, namely genotoxicity and hygiene of drinking and bathing waters. Her passing is not only a great loss to environmental research and to the global environmental toxicology community—we have lost an outstanding personality with the heart in the right place, who has become, for many of us, a wonderful friend

Contaminant Transport to Public Water Supply Wells via Flood Water Retention Areas

A measuring principle for qualitative and quantitative analyses of three-dimensional unsteady flows is presented. The principle is based on colour coding of the flow volume under consideration. Coloured light sheets are generated and used to illuminate the flow volume. Consecutive light sheets of different colours are scanned over the volume within a small interval of time. Thus, the volume is sliced and colour-coded quasi-instantaneously. With this technique, the 3D position of a particle in the volume can be identified by a 2D image and an associated colour. Since most optical flow measuring systems are based on tracers, colour coding allows the application of 2D image recorders to register 3D flow information. The paper discusses the state-of-the-art of this principle for three-dimensional flow analyses and gives information about applicability and limitations

The NORMAN Association and the European Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC): let’s cooperate! [Commentary]

The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development as a joint research and innovation programme to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment in the EU. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge, and to facilitate the transition to next-generation evidence-based risk assessment, a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The NORMAN Network is an independent, well-established and competent network of more than 80 organisations in the field of emerging substances and has enormous potential to contribute to the implementation of the PARC partnership. NORMAN stands ready to provide expert advice to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and in support of a European Early Warning System to unravel the risks of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes. In this commentary we highlight the tools developed by NORMAN that we consider most relevant to supporting the PARC initiative: (i) joint data space and cutting-edge research tools for risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern; (ii) collaborative European framework to improve data quality and comparability; (iii) advanced data analysis tools for a European early warning system and (iv) support to national and European chemical risk assessment thanks to harnessing, combining and sharing evidence and expertise on CECs. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of the NORMAN network with the financial and policy-related strengths of the PARC initiative, a large step towards the goal of a non-toxic environment can be taken

Planck pre-launch status : The Planck mission

Peer reviewe

One Planet: One Health. A Call to Support the Initiative on a Global Science-Policy Body on Chemicals and Waste

The chemical pollution crisis severely threatens human and environmental health globally. To tackle this challenge the establishment of an overarching international science–policy body has recently been suggested. We strongly support this initiative based on the awareness that humanity has already likely left the safe operating space within planetary boundaries for novel entities including chemical pollution. Immediate action is essential and needs to be informed by sound scientific knowledge and data compiled and critically evaluated by an overarching science–policy interface body. Major challenges for such a body are (i) to foster global knowledge production on exposure, impacts and governance going beyond data-rich regions (e.g., Europe and North America), (ii) to cover the entirety of hazardous chemicals, mixtures and wastes, (iii) to follow a one-health perspective considering the risks posed by chemicals and waste on ecosystem and human health, and (iv) to strive for solution-oriented assessments based on systems thinking. Based on multiple evidence on urgent action on a global scale, we call scientists and practitioners to mobilize their scientific networks and to intensify science–policy interaction with national governments to support the negotiations on the establishment of an intergovernmental body based on scientific knowledge explaining the anticipated benefit for human and environmental health