Department Environmental Chemistry

LRI ECO18

Biodegradation simulation tests are an essential element of environmental risk assessment in most chemical regulations. The OECD guideline 308 defines how transformation in aquatic sediment systems should be tested, but has been heavily criticized on various practical and theoretical grounds.

In this project sponsored by Cefic-LRI, the goal is to systematically investigate the suitability of studies carried out according to OECD 308 guidelines to deliver robust information on degradation at the sediment-water interface that is useful for exposure modeling and persistence assessment. For this purpose, different test design variants have been tested for a suite of substances that characteristically differ in their sorption and biotransformation behavior. Also, suites of existing OECD 308 data have been analyzed with kinetic models of increasing complexity and Bayesian data analysis to evaluate the suitability of these data to derive system-independent and meaningful indicators of persistence.

Publications

Honti, M.; Hahn, S.; Hennecke, D.; Junker, T.; Shrestha, P.; Fenner, K. (2016) Bridging across OECD 308 and 309 data in search of a robust biotransformation indicator, Environmental Science and Technology, 50(13), 6865-6872, doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b01097, Institutional Repository
Shrestha, P.; Junker, T.; Fenner, K.; Hahn, S.; Honti, M.; Bakkour, R.; Diaz, C.; Hennecke, D. (2016) Simulation studies to explore biodegradation in water-sediment systems: from OECD 308 to OECD 309, Environmental Science and Technology, 50(13), 6856-6864, doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b01095, Institutional Repository
Honti, M.; Fenner, K. (2015) Deriving persistence indicators from regulatory water-sediment studies - opportunities and limitations in OECD 308 data, Environmental Science and Technology, 49(10), 5879-5886, doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b00788, Institutional Repository