LGC AXIO Proficiency Testing | Emerging Pollutants of Environmental Concern: PFAS
How do they enter the environment?
Due to the wide range of contaminants, there are many mechanisms for entry into the environment. This includes; • Directly via pollution incidents • Over-spray during application • Disposal of waste materials • Indirectly via surface run off from agricultural land • Roads • Flood control systems Another significant route of entry is via the discharge from wastewater treatment as the effluents are a significant source for many of these
RISKS
~ 100 000 chemicals on the market
~ 500 chemicals extensively characterised for their hazards and exposures
EXPOSURES
HAZARDS
~ 10 000 chemicals fairly well characterised for a subset of their hazards and exposures ~ 20 000 chemicals with limited characterisation for their hazards and exposures
~ 22 600 chemicals with a use over 1 tonne per year
~ 4 700 chemicals with a use over 100 tonnes per year prioritised in hazard characterisation and evaluation
~ 70 000 chemicals with poor characterisation for their hazards and exposures
Figure 2 Chemical risks - The European environment - state and outlook 2020 report [17]
emerging contaminants. This is because of their extensive use in household products. After use, these chemicals are released into the wastewater system, many are not completely removed during wastewater treatment, thus, they enter rivers, and drinking water supplies. As shown in figure 2, it is estimated that robust information exists only for about 500 chemicals and according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA, 2019), 450 are sufficiently regulated. [17]
REACH is a regulation of the European Union that was adopted to assist the protection of the environment and human health from chemical hazards, while at the same time taking into account the needs of the chemicals industry. REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals and it entered into force on 1 June 2007. [16] CAS REGISTRY®, the CAS substance collection includes 194 million organic and inorganic substances with a few thousand substances added every month. CAS REGISTRY officially became a self-supporting division of the American Chemical Society in 1956. It contains substances identified in the literature from 1957 to present, with some substances dating back to the early 1900s .
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