Cormier Susan M, Paul John F, Spehar Robert L, Shaw-Allen Patricia, Berry Walter J, Suter Glenn W
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, MS-A 110, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, USA.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2008 Oct;4(4):490-504. doi: 10.1897/IEAM_2008-018.1.
In the United States, ambient aquatic life water quality criteria are derived using guidelines developed in 1985 that include a clear and consistent methodology using data from standard toxicity tests. The methodology from these guidelines has been successful, but a broader methodology is needed because some effects of pollutants do not lend themselves to conventional toxicity testing. Criterion assessment is proposed as that methodology. In criterion assessment, a specific environmental goal is translated into a measurable benchmark of effect that is used together with a modeled exposure-response relationship to estimate a range of exposures that will achieve the specific goal. The model of the exposure-response relationships and the benchmark effect are developed from field data and laboratory data using multiple analytical methods. Then the model is solved for the effect, thereby estimating the criterion, an upper threshold for acceptable exposures. The resulting candidate criteria are synthesized to select criteria and other benchmark values, such as remedial goals. The criterion assessment process is illustrated using the US Environmental Protection Agency Framework for Developing for Suspended and Bedded Sediments Water Quality Criteria, which recommends developing alternative candidate criterion values and then evaluating them to select a final criterion. Candidate criteria may be derived from models of field observations, field manipulations, laboratory tests, or empirical and theoretical models. Final selection of a criterion uses a weight-of-evidence comparison that engenders confidence because causal associations are confirmed on the basis of different assumptions, independent data sets, and varied statistical methods, thereby compensating for the concerns raised by individual studies and methods. Thus, it becomes possible to specify criteria for agents with biological or physical modes of action, as well as those with chemical modes of action, to best achieve environmental goals.
在美国，环境水生生物水质标准是依据1985年制定的指南推导出来的，该指南包括一种清晰且一致的方法，使用标准毒性测试的数据。这些指南中的方法很成功，但由于一些污染物的影响不适用于传统毒性测试，因此需要一种更广泛的方法。标准评估被提议作为这种方法。在标准评估中，一个特定的环境目标被转化为一个可测量的效应基准，该基准与一个模拟的暴露-反应关系一起用于估计能够实现该特定目标的一系列暴露水平。暴露-反应关系模型和基准效应是通过多种分析方法从现场数据和实验室数据中开发出来的。然后求解该模型以得到效应，从而估计标准，即可接受暴露的上限阈值。对得到的候选标准进行综合，以选择标准和其他基准值，如修复目标。使用美国环境保护局制定悬浮和沉积底质水质标准的框架来说明标准评估过程，该框架建议制定替代候选标准值，然后对其进行评估以选择最终标准。候选标准可以从现场观测模型、现场操作、实验室测试或经验和理论模型中得出。标准的最终选择使用证据权重比较，这种比较能产生可信度，因为因果关联是基于不同假设、独立数据集和多种统计方法得到确认的，从而弥补了个别研究和方法所引发的担忧。因此，有可能为具有生物或物理作用模式以及化学作用模式的物质指定标准，以最好地实现环境目标。
