TR 076 – Monitoring and Modelling of Industrial Organic Chemicals, with Particular Reference to Aquatic Risk Assessment

TR 076 : Monitoring and Modelling of Industrial Organic Chemicals, with Particular Reference to Aquatic Risk Assessment | January 1999

The process for establishing the environmental acceptability of a chemical substance involves evaluating the likelihood that an adverse ecological effect may occur as a consequence of its use. This judgement is based upon a knowledge of the inherent ability of the chemical to cause adverse effect and the concentration of the chemical in the environment. The concentration of a chemical can be estimated, using models, from the amount of the chemical released during its production, formulation, use and disposal. The most accepted way to confirm or refute these predictions is to measure the concentration in a monitoring study.

This report gives the following recommendations:
- how to plan, manage and audit cost-effective monitoring programmes;
- how to ensure that the data collected are representative for a given scenario;
- how to establish which existing data are of sufficiently high quality to preclude the need for further studies;
- how to optimise best the interplay between models and monitoring data. The report also studies the opportunities that exist to reduce the cost of field monitoring and makes recommendations for the harmonisation of existing and future monitoring programmes.