Empirical evaluation of spatial and non-spatial European-scale multimedia fate models: results and implications for chemical risk assessment.

Multimedia environmental fate models are commonly-applied tools for assessing the fate and distribution of contaminants in the environment. Owing to the large number of chemicals in use and the paucity of monitoring data, such models are often adopted as part of decision-support systems for chemical risk assessment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of three multimedia environmental fate models (spatially- and non-spatially-explicit) at a European scale.

Uncertainty in msPAF-based ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment.

Ecotoxicological effect factors are part of the analysis of relative impacts by chemical contaminants on ecosystems. Uncertainty distributions, represented by the 90% confidence interval, belonging to ecotoxicological effect factors for freshwater ecosystems were determined. This study includes 869 high production volume chemicals, related to 7 nonspecific toxic modes of action (TMoAs).

Estimating the impact of high-production-volume chemicals on remote ecosystems by toxic pressure calculation.

Although many chemicals are in use, the environmental impacts of only a few have been established, usually on per-chemical basis. Uncertainty remains about the overall impact of chemicals. This paper estimates combined toxic pressure on coastal North Sea ecosystems from 343 high-production-volume chemicals used within the catchment of rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt.