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Extrapolation Factors for Derivation of Acute Aquatic Life Screening Values: Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors
Citation:
ERICKSON, R. J. Extrapolation Factors for Derivation of Acute Aquatic Life Screening Values: Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors . U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/X-13/002.
Impact/Purpose:
To document research results
Description:
USEPA’s Office of Water (OW) and Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) are both charged with assessing risks of chemicals to aquatic species. The offices have developed scientifically defensible methods to assess chemicals under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), respectively. While both methods use laboratory toxicity tests to establish either an ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) or aquatic benchmark to characterize potential risks, the number and types of taxa differ. These differences have lead to practical field monitoring problems for States and Tribes in addressing the high number of pesticides found in aquatic environments that have no AWQC. An alternative to AWQC might be Aquatic Life Screening Values (ALSVs) that would harmonize the risk assessments under CWA and FIFRA for pesticides. MED scientists recently developed theses series of reports for OW and OPP that identify, review and recommend useful tools for ALSV development: a) Assessment Factors for Derivation of Acute Aquatic Life Screening Values: Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors; b) Review of Predictive Approaches for Use in ALSV framework: QSAR tools; c) The Use of Interspecies Correlation Estimation (ICE) in the Derivation of ALSVs; d) Analyses of Sensitivity Distributions in Support of the FIFRA/CWA Common Effects Project; e) Review of Chronic Toxicity Data and Derivation of Acute-Chronic Ratios for ALSVs. These reports culminate a collaborative effort among ORD, OW and OPP scientists over the last couple of years to develop methodologies for deriving Aquatic Life Screening Values. ALSVs are proposed for use in lieu of AWQC for risk management purposes. These foundational reports will provide the technical basis for EPA Program Offices to develop guidance and specific recommendations for ALSV development, to be presented to the SAB in January 2012.