Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts blog

One of the jobs of an environmental regulatory body is to establish acceptable levels of containments in the ecosystem under its jurisdiction.  But can the data they are basing their decisions on be relevant when standard toxicity tests have been carried out on non-native species, or when tests have not been carried out across the whole ecosystem?

This Critical Review from Samantha Eslava Martins and Adalto Bianchini at the Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil, presents the first database of toxicological tests performed with Brazilian aquatic species.  Brazil has a hugely varied ecosystem and by analysing the database they were able to identify large gaps in current research efforts – both geographical and in the species tested.

Such an approach could be easily adopted by other countries, and could be a valuable tool to help researchers understand where more information is needed or to help policy makers make more realistic decisions about the protection of the environment.

As with all our HOT articles, this one is also free to access for 4 weeks, so why not take a look:

Toxicity tests aiming to protect Brazilian aquatic systems: current status and implications for management
Samantha Eslava Martins and Adalto Bianchini
J. Environ. Monit., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0EM00787K

Assessing exposure is an important aspect of complying with the EU REACH regulations.  In the pharmaceutical industry accurately determining occupational exposure to API can be difficult due to the nature of the pharmaceutical process.  There are modelling tools available to help give confident assessments of exposure, one of the most sophisticated of which is the Advanced REACH Tool (ART).

In this HOT paper Patricia McDonnell (National University of Ireland Galway) and colleagues from across Europe have optimised ART to model airborne exposure of workers in the pharmaceutical industry, by refining and validating the inhalable dust algorithm.

If you’re interested in evaluating exposure assessment models why not download the paper – it’s free to access for 4 weeks:

Validation of the inhalable dust algorithm of the Advanced REACH Tool using a dataset from the pharmaceutical industry
Patricia E. Mc Donnell, Jody M. Schinkel, Marie A. Coggins, Wouter Fransman, Hans Kromhout, John W. Cherrie and Erik L. Tielemans
J. Environ. Monit., 2011, 13, 1597-1606
DOI: 10.1039/C1EM10189G

Andrea Tapparo and colleagues at the University of Padua, Italy, have developed a fast method for analysing neonicotinoid insecticides using UHPLC-DAD.  The method was used to analyse the insecticide content of guttation drops on corn seedlings.  Guttation is the formation of xylem droplets on leaves – often confused with dew – and has recently been proposed as a mechanism for the exposure of detrimental doses of insecticide to honey bee populations.

This HOT article is featured on the front cover of Issue 6.  Why not download it today to read the results of this interesting study – it’s free to access for 6 weeks:

Rapid analysis of neonicotinoid insecticides in guttation drops of corn seedlings obtained from coated seeds
Andrea Tapparo, Chiara Giorio, Matteo Marzaro, Daniele Marton, Lidia Soldà and Vincenzo Girolami
J. Environ. Monit., 2011, 13, 1564-1568
DOI: 10.1039/C1EM10085H, Paper