Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.340
Document accepted manuscript
Title (Primary) Effect-based trigger values for in vitro and in vivo bioassays performed on surface water extracts supporting the environmental quality standards (EQS) of the European Water Framework Directive
Author Escher, B.I.; Aїt-Aїssa, S.; Behnisch, P.A.; Brack, W.; Brion, F.; Brouwer, A.; Buchinger, S.; Crawford, S.E.; Du Pasquier, D.; Hamers, T.; Hettwer, K.; Hilscherová, K.; Hollert, H.; Kase, R.; Kienle, C.; Tindall, A.J.; Tuerk, J.; van der Oost, R.; Vermeirssen, E.; Neale, P.A.
Source Titel Science of the Total Environment
Year 2018
Department WANA; ZELLTOX
Volume 628–629
Page From 748
Page To 765
Language englisch
Keywords Environmental quality standard; Water quality monitoring; Bioassay; Mixture toxicity; Effect-based trigger value; Reporter gene assay; Effect-based methods
UFZ wide themes RU2;
Abstract Effect-based methods including cell-based bioassays, reporter gene assays and whole-organism assays have been applied for decades in water quality monitoring and testing of enriched solid-phase extracts. There is no common EU-wide agreement on what level of bioassay response in water extracts is acceptable. At present, bioassay results are only benchmarked against each other but not against a consented measure of chemical water quality. The EU environmental quality standards (EQS) differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable surface water concentrations for individual chemicals but cannot capture the thousands of chemicals in water and their biological action as mixtures. We developed a method that reads across from existing EQS and includes additional mixture considerations with the goal that the derived effect-based trigger values (EBT) indicate acceptable risk for complex mixtures as they occur in surface water. Advantages and limitations of various approaches to read across from EQS are discussed and distilled to an algorithm that translates EQS into their corresponding bioanalytical equivalent concentrations (BEQ). The proposed EBT derivation method was applied to 48 in vitro bioassays with 32 of them having sufficient information to yield preliminary EBTs. To assess the practicability and robustness of the proposed approach, we compared the tentative EBTs with observed environmental effects. The proposed method only gives guidance on how to derive EBTs but does not propose final EBTs for implementation. The EBTs for some bioassays such as those for estrogenicity are already mature and could be implemented into regulation in the near future, while for others it will still take a few iterations until we can be confident of the power of the proposed EBTs to differentiate good from poor water quality with respect to chemical contamination.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=19959
Escher, B.I., Aїt-Aїssa, S., Behnisch, P.A., Brack, W., Brion, F., Brouwer, A., Buchinger, S., Crawford, S.E., Du Pasquier, D., Hamers, T., Hettwer, K., Hilscherová, K., Hollert, H., Kase, R., Kienle, C., Tindall, A.J., Tuerk, J., van der Oost, R., Vermeirssen, E., Neale, P.A. (2018):
Effect-based trigger values for in vitro and in vivo bioassays performed on surface water extracts supporting the environmental quality standards (EQS) of the European Water Framework Directive
Sci. Total Environ. 628–629 , 748 - 765 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.340