Identification of chemical hazards for terrestrial plants in the regulatory context: Comparison of OECD and ISO guidelines

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2013-11, Vol.93 (10), p.2578-2584
• Main Authors: Tarazona, Jose V., Cesnaitis, Romanas, Herranz-Montes, Francisco Javier, Versonnen, Bram
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Chemical hazard; chemical hazards; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on plants and fungi; Environmental Policy; Environmental Pollution - legislation & jurisprudence; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; guidelines; Hazardous Substances - standards; Hazardous Substances - toxicity; Monte Carlo method; pesticides; phytotoxicity; plants (botany); Plants - drug effects; polluted soils; REACH; Reproductive effects; Soil Pollutants - standards; Soil Pollutants - toxicity; Terrestrial plants; wastes
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.09.078

[Display omitted] •Two standard ecotox. tests on terrestrial plants are compared: ISO versus OECD 208.•ISO covers reproductive effects but it is conducted with only two species.•OECD measures only emergency and growth but offers a wide species coverage.•Probabilistic models are used for quantifying the expected sensitivity of each test.•A test with six species compensates the sensitivity of the reproductive endpoints. Standardized test protocols are used in the regulatory context for identifying the hazardous properties of chemicals, wastes, and contaminated materials. This paper compares the relevance of two guidelines measuring effects on terrestrial plants, the OECD TG 208 and the ISO TG 22030 and presents the scientific basis for a recent decision of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) under the European chemicals regulation REACH. If there are no specific phytotoxicity alerts, both guidelines are considered suitable for assessing long-term hazards, providing that a sufficient number of species is included in the OECD protocol, the recommended minimum number is six, which offer a reasonably broad selection of species to account for interspecies sensitivity. The proposed methodology, based on a combination of probabilistic assessments using Monte Carlo analysis, can be adapted for supporting similar decisions under specific regulatory processes; for example, for assessing contaminated soils or pesticides’ applications.