Figure 1. Unknown pollutants and chemicals going through risk assessment vs the tiny fraction of the known and characterized pollutants
New chemicals are continuously being developed every day and many of them end up in the environment where they can cause damage to wildlife, nature and humans. Because of the influx of chemicals, national environmental monitoring programs need to be continuously revisited.
In addition to the increasing chemical selection, analytical methods are becoming increasingly more precise and more available along with improvement on other tools e.g. modelling. As more compounds can be detected more of them can be included in monitoring programs.
Unfortunately, including more compounds leads to higher prices for these programs causing regulators of chemicals (single component, mixtures or in products) to choose carefully which chemicals should be monitored. Thus, prioritization is a key factor when planning and organizing environmental monitoring programs.
The goal for the seminar is to exchange information on prioritization of hazardous substances for environmental monitoring. The following questions will be discussed:
– Lessons learned, are we actually smarter
today?
– Is substitution one of the solutions?
– Prioritization and regulation – how does
it interact?
– Prioritization and risk assessment – how
does it interact?
– How are substances prioritized in
national environmental monitoring programs today?
– New methods on prioritization – what’s up?
A variety of speakers were invited to discuss various topics relating to these questions. Among them are researchers from Nordic universities, governmental bodies as well as selected international research institutes and agencies. If interested, please feel free to download the agenda and majority of the presentations below.
