New generation tools and approaches for ecological risk assessment of emerging contaminants

Australasian regulators, industry and communities are concerned about emerging contaminants (ECs) risks and the knowledge gaps preventing assessment of their impacts on our physical, environmental, and economic wellbeing. To date, a wide variety of both developmental and reproductive disorders observed in wildlife species have clearly been linked to the exposure to low concentrations of ECs which act as endocrine active chemicals (EACs). In Australia, there are often regulatory requirements for industry releasing wastewater into the environment to conduct direct toxicity assessment (DTA) of the discharge, to ensure that the risk to the environment is acceptable. DTA has traditionally involved the use of whole animal (or in vivo) bioassays. Current test systems for assessing potential EACs include in silico, in vitro, and in vivo techniques focused on detecting potential endocrine activity, and in vivo tests that collect apical data to detect possible adverse effects (Marty et al., 2017). (author)