Publication details

Expert opinion on toxicity profiling – report from a NORMAN expert group meeting.

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Authors

HAMERS T. LEGLER J. BLÁHA Luděk HYLLAND K. MARIGOMEZ I. SCHIPPER C. A. SEGNER H. VETHAAK D. WITTERS H. DE ZWART D. LEONARDS P.E.G.

Year of publication 2013
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1395
Field Environment influence on health
Keywords Toxicity profile; Effect directed analysis; Water framework directive; Bioassays; Biomarkers
Description This article describes the outcome and follow up discussions of an expert group meeting (Amsterdam, October 9, 2009) on the applicability of toxicity profiling for diagnostic environmental risk assessment. A toxicity profile was defined as a toxicological fingerprint of a sample, ranging froma pure compound to a complex mixture, obtained by testing the sample or its extract for its activity toward a battery of biological endpoints. The expert group concluded that toxicity profiling is an effective first tier tool for screening the integrated hazard of complex environmental mixtures with known and unknown toxicologically active constituents. In addition, toxicity profiles can be used for prioritization of sampling locations, for identification of hot spots, and in combination with effect directed analysis (EDA) or toxicity identification and evaluation (TIE) approaches for establishing cause effect relationships by identifying emerging pollutants responsible for the observed toxic potency. Small volume in vitro bioassays are especially applicable for these purposes, as they are relatively cheap and fast with costs comparable to chemical analyses, and the results are toxicologically more relevant and more suitable for realistic risk assessment. For regulatory acceptance in the European Union, toxicity profiling terminology should keep as close as possible to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) terminology, and validation, standardization, statistical analyses, and other quality aspects of toxicity profiling should be further elaborated.
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