Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Agroscope, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2019 Nov;15(6):948-960. doi: 10.1002/ieam.4192.
An environmental quality standard (EQS) is a threshold value applied in regulatory monitoring for retrospective environmental risk assessment. However, an EQS may vary with time and between countries with shared water bodies, challenging coherent risk management. This study aimed to analyze the underlying reasons for changes in EQS values following a revision of previously derived EQSs for 62 substances. Relevant data were retrieved from publicly accessible databases, available literature, registration dossiers, and, in some cases, provided by manufacturers. Ecotoxicological data were assessed regarding reliability and relevance. As in previous studies, EQS derivation followed the European Union guideline. Overall, 61 annual average EQSs (AA-EQS) and 58 maximum acceptable concentration EQSs (MAC-EQS) were derived. Size and completeness of data sets generally increased due to the revision. AA-EQSs increased in 13 cases and decreased in 21 cases. MAC-EQSs increased in 22 cases and decreased in 11 cases. Most EQSs were derived using the deterministic assessment factor (AF) method. The number of substances for which EQSs were derived probabilistically by reference to the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method increased from 2 to 5 AA-EQSs and from 6 to 11 MAC-EQSs. For AA-EQS derivation, AFs were reduced in 14 cases and increased in 6 cases. For MAC-EQS derivation, AFs were reduced in 9 cases and increased in 2 cases. Results demonstrate that the revisions did not generally lead to either lower or higher EQSs. The majority of EQSs (>93%) changed less than 10-fold. Clearly, EQSs based on small or incomplete data sets with large AFs were more prone to considerable changes in their numeric values when revised than EQSs based on SSDs. Thus, revision can reduce uncertainty and increase robustness of an EQS. In this study, however, available data continued to be insufficient to construct SSDs for the majority of substances. This was mostly due to a lack of reliable data. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;00:1-13. © 2019 SETAC.
环境质量标准（EQS）是应用于监管监测以进行回顾性环境风险评估的阈值。然而，EQS 可能随时间和具有共同水体的国家而变化，从而对连贯的风险管理构成挑战。本研究旨在分析 62 种物质的先前推导的 EQS 修订后 EQS 值变化的根本原因。从公开可访问的数据库、可用文献、注册文件中检索相关数据，在某些情况下，从制造商处获取数据。评估了生态毒理学数据的可靠性和相关性。与以前的研究一样，EQS 的推导遵循欧盟准则。总体上，推导了 61 个年均浓度 EQS（AA-EQS）和 58 个最大允许浓度 EQS（MAC-EQS）。由于修订，数据集的规模和完整性通常会增加。AA-EQS 在 13 种情况下增加，在 21 种情况下减少。MAC-EQS 在 22 种情况下增加，在 11 种情况下减少。大多数 EQS 是使用确定性评估因子（AF）方法推导的。通过参考物种敏感性分布（SSD）方法对概率推导 EQS 的物质数量从 2 个 AA-EQS 和 6 个 MAC-EQS 增加到 5 个和 11 个。对于 AA-EQS 的推导，AF 在 14 种情况下减少，在 6 种情况下增加。对于 MAC-EQS 的推导，AF 在 9 种情况下减少，在 2 种情况下增加。结果表明，修订通常不会导致 EQS 降低或升高。大多数 EQS（>93%）变化幅度小于 10 倍。显然，基于具有较大 AF 的小型或不完整数据集的 EQS 比基于 SSD 的 EQS 更容易在修订时其数值发生相当大的变化。因此，修订可以降低 EQS 的不确定性并提高其稳健性。然而，在本研究中，由于缺乏可靠的数据，大多数物质仍然没有足够的数据来构建 SSD。
