ETH, Safety and Environmental Technology Group, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Zentrum, CAB C32.5, Universitätsstrasse 6, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2000;7(3):135-43. doi: 10.1065/espr199911.013.
A significant problem for effect assessment of aquatic ecosystems arises from the large ranges of toxicity data, which can be found in different databases and literature. Here, ranges are given for the aquatic toxicity of 27 high production volume chemicals. Based on these illustrative examples and on the current literature on uncertainty in aquatic effect assessment, toxicity ranges are discussed for their possible causes (variation in experimental condition, species, endpoint, time) and ways to handle them (safety factors). Implications and recommendations on the procedure of risk analysis of chemical substances are drawn. Two main requirements for a comprehensive risk assessment are identified, which often play a minor role in current practice (as they are often neglected) as well as in scientific discussion (as they are meant to be trivial). First, data quality must be checked critically before applying any result of a toxicity test. Secondly, experimental data should take into account different species and acute as well as chronic data. If these aspects are considered in risk analysis, which is common practice in ecotoxicology but not always in the context of practical applications in risk engineering, a more comprehensive picture of the environmental toxicity of a chemical substance can be obtained.
水生生态系统效应评估的一个重大问题源于毒性数据的广泛范围，这些数据可以在不同的数据库和文献中找到。在这里，给出了 27 种高产量化学品的水生毒性范围。基于这些说明性示例和当前关于水生效应评估不确定性的文献，讨论了毒性范围的可能原因（实验条件、物种、终点、时间的变化）和处理方法（安全系数）。对化学物质风险分析程序提出了影响和建议。确定了全面风险评估的两个主要要求，这些要求在当前实践（由于经常被忽视）以及科学讨论中（由于它们被认为是微不足道的）通常作用不大。首先，在应用毒性试验的任何结果之前，必须严格检查数据质量。其次，实验数据应考虑不同的物种以及急性和慢性数据。如果在风险分析中考虑到这些方面，这在生态毒理学中是常见的做法，但在风险工程实际应用的背景下并不总是如此，那么可以更全面地了解化学物质的环境毒性。
