Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools
Several tons of chemicals are released every year into the environment and it is essential to assess the risk of adverse effects on human health and ecosystems. Risk assessment is expensive and time-consuming and only partial information is available for many compounds. A consolidated approach to ov...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Molecules |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/7/1928 |
| _version_ | 1797539553982021632 |
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| author | Diego Baderna Roberta Faoro Gianluca Selvestrel Adrien Troise Davide Luciani Sandrine Andres Emilio Benfenati |
| author_facet | Diego Baderna Roberta Faoro Gianluca Selvestrel Adrien Troise Davide Luciani Sandrine Andres Emilio Benfenati |
| author_sort | Diego Baderna |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Several tons of chemicals are released every year into the environment and it is essential to assess the risk of adverse effects on human health and ecosystems. Risk assessment is expensive and time-consuming and only partial information is available for many compounds. A consolidated approach to overcome this limitation is the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) for assessment of the potential health impact and, more recently, eco-TTCs for the ecological aspect. The aim is to allow a safe assessment of substances with poor toxicological characterization. Only limited attempts have been made to integrate the human and ecological risk assessment procedures in a “One Health” perspective. We are proposing a strategy to define the Human-Biota TTCs (HB-TTCs) as concentrations of organic chemicals in freshwater preserving both humans and ecological receptors at the same time. Two sets of thresholds were derived: general HB-TTCs as preliminary screening levels for compounds with no eco- and toxicological information, and compound-specific HB-TTCs for chemicals with known hazard assessment, in terms of Predicted No effect Concentration (PNEC) values for freshwater ecosystems and acceptable doses for human health. The proposed strategy is based on freely available public data and tools to characterize and group chemicals according to their toxicological profiles. Five generic HB-TTCs were defined, based on the ecotoxicological profiles reflected by the Verhaar classes, and compound-specific thresholds for more than 400 organic chemicals with complete eco- and toxicological profiles. To complete the strategy, the use of in silico models is proposed to predict the required toxicological properties and suitable models already available on the VEGAHUB platform are listed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:47:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-74e4958ac36848a49a854c9c704e0007 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1420-3049 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:47:29Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Molecules |
| spelling | doaj.art-74e4958ac36848a49a854c9c704e00072023-11-21T13:21:44ZengMDPI AGMolecules1420-30492021-03-01267192810.3390/molecules26071928Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA ToolsDiego Baderna0Roberta Faoro1Gianluca Selvestrel2Adrien Troise3Davide Luciani4Sandrine Andres5Emilio Benfenati6Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milano, ItalyLaboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milano, ItalyLaboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milano, ItalyINERIS Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Rue Jacques Taffanel, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatt, FranceLaboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milano, ItalyINERIS Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Rue Jacques Taffanel, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatt, FranceLaboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milano, ItalySeveral tons of chemicals are released every year into the environment and it is essential to assess the risk of adverse effects on human health and ecosystems. Risk assessment is expensive and time-consuming and only partial information is available for many compounds. A consolidated approach to overcome this limitation is the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) for assessment of the potential health impact and, more recently, eco-TTCs for the ecological aspect. The aim is to allow a safe assessment of substances with poor toxicological characterization. Only limited attempts have been made to integrate the human and ecological risk assessment procedures in a “One Health” perspective. We are proposing a strategy to define the Human-Biota TTCs (HB-TTCs) as concentrations of organic chemicals in freshwater preserving both humans and ecological receptors at the same time. Two sets of thresholds were derived: general HB-TTCs as preliminary screening levels for compounds with no eco- and toxicological information, and compound-specific HB-TTCs for chemicals with known hazard assessment, in terms of Predicted No effect Concentration (PNEC) values for freshwater ecosystems and acceptable doses for human health. The proposed strategy is based on freely available public data and tools to characterize and group chemicals according to their toxicological profiles. Five generic HB-TTCs were defined, based on the ecotoxicological profiles reflected by the Verhaar classes, and compound-specific thresholds for more than 400 organic chemicals with complete eco- and toxicological profiles. To complete the strategy, the use of in silico models is proposed to predict the required toxicological properties and suitable models already available on the VEGAHUB platform are listed.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/7/1928threshold of toxicological concerneco-TTChuman-biota TCCchemical risk assessmentscreening levelstoxicology |
| spellingShingle | Diego Baderna Roberta Faoro Gianluca Selvestrel Adrien Troise Davide Luciani Sandrine Andres Emilio Benfenati Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools Molecules threshold of toxicological concern eco-TTC human-biota TCC chemical risk assessment screening levels toxicology |
| title | Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools |
| title_full | Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools |
| title_fullStr | Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools |
| title_full_unstemmed | Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools |
| title_short | Defining the Human-Biota Thresholds of Toxicological Concern for Organic Chemicals in Freshwater: The Proposed Strategy of the LIFE VERMEER Project Using VEGA Tools |
| title_sort | defining the human biota thresholds of toxicological concern for organic chemicals in freshwater the proposed strategy of the life vermeer project using vega tools |
| topic | threshold of toxicological concern eco-TTC human-biota TCC chemical risk assessment screening levels toxicology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/7/1928 |
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