Bilastine: an environmental risk assessment.

Context: Bilastine is a new oral selective, non-sedating histamine H1 antagonist for the symptomatic treatment of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and urticaria. The European Medicines Agency requires an Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for all novel medicines for human use.

Objective: To calculate the bilastine predicted environmental concentration in surface water (PECsw; phase I ERA), and to determine the effects of bilastine on aquatic systems (phase II [tier A]).

Diclofenac: New data on chronic toxicity and bioconcentration in fish.

Diclofenac (DCF) is a widely used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is regularly detected in surface waters. To support a robust aquatic risk assessment, two early life stage (ELS) tests, compliant with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guideline 210, were conducted in rainbow trout and in zebrafish. Population relevant endpoints, such as hatching, growth, and survival, and in the trout study, histopathological effects in potential target organs, were examined.

Development of methods for evaluating toxicity to freshwater ecosystems.

This article presents a summary of a collaborative research program involving five European research groups, that was partly funded by the European Commission under its Environmental Research Program. The objective of the program was to develop aquatic toxicity tests that could be used to obtain data for inclusion at Level 2 of the Risk Evaluation Scheme for the Notification of Substances as required by the 7th Amendment to EC Directive 79/831/EEC. Currently only a very limited number of test methods have been described that can be used for this purpose and these are based on an even smaller number of test species.

A pond mesocosm study to determine direct and indirect effects of lindane on a natural zooplankton community.

We assessed the threshold concentrations for toxic effects by lindane on a zooplankton community using mesocosms in a natural pond. Enclosures (1000 litres) were treated to give mean concentrations of 0, 2, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 50 microg litre(-1) over a test period of 39 days. Larvae of the phantom midge Chaoborus flavicans showed a high susceptibility to lindane and were virtually eliminated from enclosures with > or =12 microg litre(-1) 4 days after application.

Toxicity of lindane to freshwater insect larvae in compartments of an experimental pond.

The acute and chronic toxicities of lindane to larvae of the freshwater insects Chironomus riparius Meigen, Chaoborus flavicans (Meigen), and Sigara striata (L.) were investigated in mesocosm compartments of an experimental pond. The following median lethal concentrations (LC50s) were determined: 240-hr LC50 of 2.