Invitation NORMAN – UBA Workshop Biocides – compartment-specific strategies – 25-26 June 2015, Berlin

Since September 2013 the assessment and authorisation of biocides on the European market have been regulated by the EU Biocidal Products Regulation No. 528/2012 (BPR). Environmental monitoring can help to assess changes caused by the implementation of the new legislation: environmental burdens may decrease because several biocidal active substances have been withdrawn from the market or will be banned in the coming years as a consequence of non-approval decisions. Additionally, the use of certain biocidal substances will be restricted by risk mitigation measures. On the other hand, environmental levels of other biocides may rise as a result of replacement for non-approved compounds.

This international workshop on biocides monitoring, jointly organised by the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, www.umweltbundesamt.de) and the NORMAN network (www.normandata.eu), as a follow-up to the first joint workshop in November 2012 (see www.normandata.eu/?q=node/99), will address the role of environmental monitoring in assessing the consequences of the EU biocides regulation.

An outcome of the first workshop was the recognition of the importance of adapting biocides monitoring to the different environmental compartments. Compartment-specific strategies for biocides monitoring will therefore be the main focus of the current workshop. Dedicated sessions will cover monitoring of biocides in urban environments, in surface waters and in terrestrial ecosystems. Methodological aspects and the state of knowledge on biocide-specific monitoring in these compartments will be discussed in break-out groups.