An assessment of the ECETOC TRA Consumer tool performance as a screening level tool.

BACKGROUND: The European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) Consumer tool was developed to fill in a methodology gap for a high throughput, screening level tool to support industry compliance with the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if the TRA Consumer tool has met its design of being a screening level tool (i.e., one which does not under-predict potential exposures). METHODS: The TRA Consumer tool algorithms and defaults were reviewed and performance benchmarked vs. other consumer models and/or empirical data. Findings from existing reviews of the TRA consumer tool were also considered and addressed. RESULTS: TRA predictions based on its default inputs exceeded measured exposures when available, typically by orders of magnitude, and were generally greater than or similar to those of other consumer exposure tools. For dermal exposure from articles, there was no evidence that a diffusivity approach would provide more appropriate exposure estimates than those of the TRA. When default values are refined using more specific data, the refined values must be considered holistically to reflect the situation being modeled as some parameters may be correlated. SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first evaluation of the ECETOC TRA consumer tool in its entirety, considering algorithms, input defaults, and associated predictions for consumer products and articles. The evaluation confirmed its design as a screening level tool. IMPACT STATEMENT: The ECETOC TRA Consumer tool has been widely applied to generate exposure estimates to support chemical registrations under the EU REACH regulation. This evaluation supports the appropriateness of the TRA as a screening level exposure assessment tool. It also warrants additional measurements of consumer exposure, especially for article use scenarios, to aid the development of consumer exposure tools and chemical risk assessment.

Specific environmental release categories--A tool for improving chemical safety assessment in the EC--report of a multi-stakeholder workshop.

In April 2011, experts from industry and authorities met for a workshop to discuss experience and future developments regarding the use of specific environmental release categories (SPERCs) in chemicals safety assessment (CSA) under the European Chemicals Regulation Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH). This article provides a summary of the workshop. It briefly explains what a SPERC is, why SPERCs are needed, where the challenges of the concept are, and what improvements are needed to make SPERCs a useful tool for assessments under REACH.

Mobility and degradation of the herbicide imazosulfuron in lysimeters under field conditions.

The mobility and degradation of imazosulfuron, labeled with carbon-14 at the imidazole ([imi-(14)C]imazo) or pyrimidine ring ([pyr-(14)C]imazo), in lysimeters with 1 m(2) surface and 110 cm depth were investigated for three years. One lysimeter was treated with [imi-(14)C]imazo in two successive years at the rate of 50 g of active ingredient (ai)/ha each. The other two lysimeters were treated once with [pyr-(14)C]imazo and a mixture (1:1, w/w) of the two labeled imazosulfurons, respectively (50 g of ai/ha). In the first and second years of monitoring, the yearly mean concentration of (14)C in the leachate water was <0.10 microg/L in each lysimeter. Although in the third year the concentration of (14)C in the leachate water was 0.17 microg/L for the lysimeter treated twice with [imi-(14)C]imazo, the concentration of imazosulfuron and its degradation products in the leachate water ranged from 0.01 to 0.06 microg/L. At the study termination, the main portion of (14)C recovered was found in the upper 30 cm soil layer in each lysimeter, and no (14)C was detected below a depth of 50 cm. These findings indicated that imazosulfuron and its degradation products in soils translocated into groundwater only slightly.