Harmonization of environmental quality objectives for air, water and soil
- National Inst. of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Bilthoven (Netherlands)
Environmental quality objectives (EQO) are often derived for single compartments only. However, concentrations at or below EQO level for one compartment may lead to exceeding of the EQO in another compartment due to intermedia transport of the chemical. Hence, achieving concentrations lower than the EQO in e.g. air does not necessarily mean that a ``safe`` concentration in soil can be maintained because of deposition from air to soil. This means that EQOs for air, water and soil must be harmonized in such a way that they meet a coherence criterion. This criterion implies that a EQO for one compartment has to be set at a level that full protection to organisms living in other compartments is ensured. In The Netherlands a project has been started to derive harmonized EQOs for a large number of chemicals. First, EQ0s are derived for all compartments based on ecotoxicological data for single species applying extrapolation methods. Secondly, these independently derived EQOs are harmonized. For harmonization of EQOs for water, sediment and soil the equilibrium partitioning method is used. For harmonization of EQOs for water and soil with the E00s for air a procedure is used applying computed steady state concentration ratios rather than equilibrium partitioning. The model SimpleBox is used for these computations. Some results of the project mentioned above will be presented. Attention will be paid to the derivation of independent EQ0s as well as the harmonization procedures applied.
- OSTI ID:
- 40055
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273-; TRN: IM9520%%250
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 15. annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Denver, CO (United States), 30 Oct - 3 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 15th annual meeting: Abstract book. Ecological risk: Science, policy, law, and perception; PB: 286 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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