Steps towards environmental hazard assessment of new chemicals (including a hazard ranking scheme,based upon directive 79/831/EEC)

Directive 79/831/EEC came into force on 18th September 1981, enabling all the Member States of the EEC to classify so-called “new chemicals” with respect to their potential hazard to the environment and to human health on a standardized basis (Directive 79/831/EEC, Annex VII). The authors are of the opinion that the assessment of the “environmental hazard” of new chemicals before they are placed on the market, represents, in the present critical economic /ecological situation, which practically all the Member States have in common, a particular challenge to the scientific community and the competent authorities. The comments aim to achieve the following - to provide a more precise definition of certain key terms and to point out a way of selecting from the bundle of new chemicals those (few) which are potentially hazardous; a way which is clear to the administration, the scientific community, industry and, not least of all, to the individual as taxpayer and consumer.     

Modellierung von Stoffausbreitungen

Die Modellierung des Ausbreitungsverhaltens von Stoffen unterschiedlicher Eigenschaften in der Umwelt stellt eine Herausforderung dar, da die zugrundeliegenden physikalischen Transport-, chemischen Reaktions- und biologischen An- oder Abreicherungsprozesse zeitlich variabel in r?umlich heterogen strukturierten Umweltsystemen wirken. Durch geschickt gew?hlte Vereinfachungen, Abgrenzungen und Mittelungen sind bemerkenswerte Erfolge bis hin zur bedingt-prognostischen Simulation ausgew?hlter Stoffe und Stoffgruppen erzielt worden. Forschungsbedarf besteht vor allem in der Modellierung der kleinr?umigen, medienübergreifenden Ausbreitung von Stoffen in komplexen ?kosystemaren Zusammenh?ngen, einschlie?lich der Austausch- und Transfervorg?nge und der chemisch-biologischen Transformationen. Bericht vom 32. Tutzing-Symposium der DECHEMA e.V., 7. bis 10. M?rz 1994     

Grundwassergefährdung durch Holzschutzmittel

Goal and Background

As a consequence of the implementation of EU Directive 98/8/EC into national law in June 2002, all biocidal products will be subjected to an authorization procedure. Condition for issue of an authorization is that the product or its residues do not exert unacceptable effects on human and animal health or on surface water and groundwater. Hence, among other issues, impact of wood preservatives on groundwater is to be assessed. Focus is particularly on impregnating plants with open-air storage sites for treated wood.

Methods

Based on already in-use versions of the leaching model PELMO, an advanced version (MC-PELMO 3.0) was developed with a specific focus on estimating groundwater contamination under storage sites at wood preserving facilities in Germany. The model processes twenty-two different leaching scenarios that were derived from twelve characteristic soil profiles representing pedological regions in Germany along with recorded meteorological data from nine weather stations. These data are related to geographic distribution of industrial wood preserving activity. The model calculates statistic probabilities of concentrations of wood preservatives in seepage water beneath timber storage sites of regions to be selected by the user.

Results and Discussion

The reports provided by MC-PELMO 3.0 include mean average concentrations, 55 to 99 percentiles, and single maximum concentrations for each of the scenarios. the results can be related to the total area of Germany, its forest area or to the density of preversation activity in various regions. Beside concentrations of the parent compounds, those of degradation products may be calculated for the seepage water.

Conclusion

The described model is a particularly useful tool for comparative assertion of various wood preservative products under aspects of the exposure of groundwater resources. Comparative assertion is a new element within EU-chemicals policy, for the first time materialized in the biocidal products directive 98/8/EC. Furthermore, the results of model calculations identify vulnerable regions in Germany for which appropriate risk management measures have to be taken in order to protect groundwater from contamination.     

Growth and development of Calanus spp. (Copepoda) during spring phytoplankton succession in the North Sea

Experiments were carried out to determine growth and development rates of the herbivorous copepod Calanus finmarchicus (Gunnerus) under natural conditions during the phytoplankton spring bloom in the northern North Sea. From 28 April to 25 May 1983 copepodite stages I, IV and V were incubated for a 3-d period on board a ship in vessels with naturally occurring phytoplankton or cultured algae as food. Highest rates of growth and development were achieved while the diatom Chaetoceros sp. was the dominant phytoplankton organism. These rates decreased considerably when this chain-forming diatom was succeeded after one week by the small-celled diatom Thalassiosira conferta. Again one week later, during the bloom of the succeeding colonial microflagellate Corymbellus aureus, copepodite stage IV still managed to maintain moderate rates of growth and development, but these rates dropped to almost zero in CV, suggesting the start of a resting stage. Nevertheless, brood collected from this generation and from Calanus helgolandicus (Claus) was raised in the laboratory to the adult stage at high speed. Since temperature and the total phytoplankton concentration in the sea remained almost constant it seems that the retardation and arrestment of growth and development were an immediate response to a qualitative change of the food composition related to the successive blooms of different algal species.     

Buchbesprechungen

The Science of Nature -     

The role of scale in integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities

By using a scale framework, we examine how cross-scale interactions influence the implementation of climate adaptation and mitigation actions in different urban sectors. Based on stakeholder interviews and content analysis of strategies and projects relevant to climate adaptation and mitigation in the cities of Copenhagen and Helsinki, we present empirical examples of synergies, conflicts and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation that are driven by the cross-scale interactions. These examples show that jurisdictional and institutional scales shape the implementation of adaptation and mitigation strategies, projects and tasks at the management scale, creating benefits of integrated solutions, but also challenges. Investigating the linkages between adaptation and mitigation through a scale framework provides new knowledge for urban climate change planning and decision-making. The results increase the understanding of why adaptation and mitigation are sometimes handled as two separate policy areas and also why attempts to integrate the two policies may fail.