Anforderungen an Stoffeintraege in Gewaesser Hinweise fuer Stoffanwender

In 1998, the contracting parties under the Conventions for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East-Atlantic (OSPAR) and the Baltic Sea (HELCOM) agreed on a new 'Strategy with Regard to Hazardous Substances'. The Strategy implements the Esbjerg Declaration of the Fourth International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea in 1995: 'The Ministers agree that the objective is to ensure a sustainable, sound and healthy North Sea ecosystem. This implies the prevention of pollution of the North Sea by continuously reducing discharges, emissions and losses of hazardous substances, thereby moving towards the target of their cessation within one generation (25 years)...'. In the framework of the present study, criteria and indicators have been worked out for the assessment of possible releases of chemicals to water systems. These criteria may enable the users of substances and preparations better to characterise the chemicals, with a view on the long term objectives for the protection of inland and marine waters. The report provides a systematic overview on the different approaches for the assessment of potential releases of substances with regard to: use patterns, substance properties, availability and validity of information, procedure and outcome of the assessment process. The assessment techniques were evaluated with respect to their applicability under the long term objective with regard to hazardous substances in the aquatic environment. The report links the relevant requirements related to legislation and management systematically to each other: Chemicals legislation; workers and consumers health protection; water protection; emission controls; health, safety and environmental management (HSE); product controls and product labelling. Based on the study results, a guidance for the industrial users of chemicals and their associations has been developed. The main target group are the manufacturers of preparations and their climents in industry, for example: textile industry, metal processing industry, manufacturers of plastic articles. It aims at challenging the industry associations to develop and offer consultation services. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RN 8422(1999,60) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Development and Implementation of Marine Contaminent Threshold Values.

This report compiles available Threshold Values (TVs) for marine chemical contaminants at EU, regional and beyond EU level, provides relevant information and discussion points for TV derivation and implementation, and outlines the main hindrances and potential approaches to fill the gaps. This document is a product of the MSFD Expert Network on Contaminants and is intended as a background guidance document to support developments to improve consistency in marine contaminant assessments. The report highlights the reality of the lack of knowledge about reference values (whether they are background, threshold or Environmental Quality Standard values) for many contaminants in the marine environment. Although regulations and frameworks are in place, and new ones are being implemented, the assessment of Good Environmental Status will remain difficult without high quality environmental and toxicological data. The variety of applied TVs is hindering a comparable assessment of problematic substances and the necessary reduction/phase-out measures. Considering the huge work needed to develop TVs and the high number of potential contaminants, current approaches need to be reviewed. Furthermore, the concerns on the environmental significance of TVs when they are not based on sufficient data and relevant assessment factors, and the difficulty to generalise TVs for all matrix/species monitored, call for discussions on resource-efficient TV development and potential alternative ways forward

Guidance on potential exclusion of certain WFD priority substances from MSFD monitoring beyond coastal and territorial waters

According to Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), EU Member States (MS) shall consider, in their Descriptor 8 primary criterion (D8C1) assessments, the WFD Priority Substances (PS) and River Basin Specific Pollutants (RBSP) within coastal and territorial waters and also beyond territorial waters if these still may give rise to pollution effects. Some WFD PS might not be relevant for the marine environment in the open sea and, consequently, might be excluded from MSFD monitoring beyond the territorial waters. MS have expressed the need for a framework for the deselection of WFD PS from monitoring under the MSFD, in order to save resources. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), collaborating within the MSFD Expert Network on Contaminants, has developed a pragmatic approach to identify the WFD PS that can be excluded from MSFD monitoring in the open sea beyond territorial waters without reducing protection of European Seas. This should preempt the need for individual MS to provide rationales for such exclusions, support comparable monitoring and assessments across national boundaries, and enable MS to focus their monitoring efforts on other (including emerging) substances that require attention