Chemical In Environmental Risk Assessment

Question 1

What can be said about chemical consumption in Europe?

Answer 1

Chemical consumption in Europe has remained relatively constant over decades since its introduction with an increase in consumption seen in 2021.

The highest consumed chemicals are a non hazardous, followed by chemicals that are hazardous to human health and the lowest consumed are chemicals harmful to the environment.

Question 2

True or false: the chemosphere is diverse and expanding

Answer 2

True

Question 3

True or false : world wide prescription of drug sales has been increasing exponentially

Answer 3

True

Question 4

True or false : the chemosphere expansion means that 40 to 70 new chemicals are introduced every hour .

Answer 4

True

Question 5

True or false: the more stuff people get the happier the become but more stuff = more waste

Answer 5

True

Question 6

Use and production overview of chemicals

Answer 6

40 to 70 chemicals are produced every hour.
There are 7 million chemicals available for commerce
App. 100000 are in use globally.
Each chemical has a transformation and degradation product : which mean that they change into other forms when they enter the environment.
Annual production varies from mg to million tonnes.
Toxicity spans several orders of magnitude (some may be highly toxic while others may be mild ).

In conclusion: tons of chemicals produced, sold and used, with varying quantities,toxicities and environmental effects.

Question 7

What is the thing consider with chemical pollution ?

Answer 7

We must consider the whole ecosystem to understand the chemical interactions with the environment.

We must understand bioaccumulation ( chemical build up in animals over time ), we must also consider the possibility of biomagnification(where at each step of the food change the amount of chemicals increases)

Question 8

What can you say about chemicals and their environmental interactions ?

Answer 8

If the 100,000 chemicals being used globally enter the environment they can change into a million by products making millions of exposure scenarios possible which creates complex network of interactions with the environment.

Question 9

True or false : overtime regulations on chemicals have increased exponentially .

Answer 9

True

Question 10

What is required to combat chemicals in the environment?

Answer 10

The solution requires a holistic approach but more regulations is the forefront answer/solution.

Question 11

Currently regulatory approaches have two main focuses,what are they ?

Answer 11

Product focus
Environment focus

Question 12

What can be said about product focus ?

Answer 12

These are regulations put in place to assess the safety of individual chemical before they enter the market .
Eg. REACH, the the pesticide directive, the toxic substances control act.

Pros:
Easy to request data
Easy to perform risk assessment

Cons:
The have a limited scope and often do not consider effects that come form interaction with other chemicals in the environment.

Question 13

What can be said about the environment focus?

Answer 13

These regulation are set to protect the ecosystem and consider the overall chemical status of the environment.

Eg. The water framework directive

Cons:
Can be hard to implement
Requires lots of data collection and analysis.
Difficult to find funding (ends up falling on government)

Question 14

True or false: regardless of regulations , some countries still use harmful and toxic chemical substance like asbestos and PFCAS

Answer 14

True

Question 15

What are PFCAS?

Answer 15

A group of chemicals that move really quickly when released in to the environment. They can contaminate groundwater quickly

Question 16

Limitation on regulations that exist

Answer 16

Lack data on chemical hazardous exposure.
Limited data on environmental interactions

Question 17

True or false in many places several pharmaceuticals are detected in surface , ground and drinking water

Answer 17

True

Question 18

True or false : in some instances despite knowing the damage that chemicals do in the ecosystem there is still no reduction in concentration levels in the environment.

Answer 18

True .

Question 19

What is actually known about the entire situation?

Answer 19

The production of chemicals ,use and some toxicological properties

Question 20

What happens when a firm needs to get approval for a chemical it is required to perform eco toxicology studies. What is the gap here?

Answer 20

A good chunk of all eco toxicology studies conducted have Ben done on 2 species of algae, 2species of aquatic vertebrate and 5 species of fish which is not very representative of the whole environment or ecosystem.

Question 21

True or false :us chemical risk assessments are going down.

Answer 21

True

Question 22

EIA and chemicals

Answer 22

An EIA plays a part in chemical distribution in the environment, in the impact identification and prediction stages potential chemical risks can be identified and proper mitigation strategies can be put in place to prevent chemical pollution in the environment.

Question 23

What is the fate factor?

Answer 23

This is explains how a chemical moves and spreads in the environment after release.

Question 24

What is the eco toxicology factor?

Answer 24

This refers to how harmful a chemical a pollutant is to living organisms (including humans) and ecosystems in the environment

Question 25

What is the connection between the fate factor and ecotox factor?

Answer 25

The fate factor tells us where the chemical will go and the ecotox factor tell us how harmful it will be to the organisms that exist there

Question 26

True or false: ecotoxicity is an impact category in the life cycle assessment impact model.

Answer 26

True.

Question 27

True or false in LCIA there is the need to do weighting to determine which impact category should be prioritized and addressed

Answer 27

True

Question 28

What are the pitfalls of an LCA?

Answer 28

An LCA study is conducted with a variety of decision and assumptions from methodology to data sources. This makes it difficult to make comparison which other chemicals or products that have gone different LCA studies. An LCA is heavily reliant on databases and sources , however there is a huge lack of data on several chemicals especially those found in complex mixtures making it difficult to conduct LCA. The weighting done in an LCA during impact assessment is subjective and this influences the overall results of the assessment leading to different outcomes for different LCAs using different weighting methods, making it difficult to choose the best products.

Question 29

Define the following: final release estimate, environmental compartment, potential affected fraction.

Answer 29

Final release estimate: this refers to amount/ concentration of a pollutant has been released into the environment. Environmental compartment: soil, water, air and sediments. Potential affected fraction: the number of organisms /species at risk of harm from the pollutant.

Question 30

What matter with chemical pollution?

Answer 30

The amount of a chemical pollutant released is not as important as the risk quotient (RQ). R

Question 31

What is risk quotient (RQ) of a chemical?

Answer 31

This refers to how potent a chemical is.

Question 32

What are the ways to assess environmental impacts and toxicological (humans) effects of chemicals .

Answer 32

Through Life cycle assessment Chemical risk assessment : focuses on assessing the potential risks posed by chemicals on the natural environment and human health. Large scale modeling

Question 33

What is large scale Modeling?

Answer 33

This is a simulation that tracks the release, fate and effects of chemicals on the environment considering large range of factors and variables. Pros : makes it easier to identify high risk chemicals and sectors. Easily identifies data gaps.

Question 34

Current limitations of LCA/ CRA in the chemical industry.

Answer 34

Lack of data for several chemicals. Focuses on freshwater compartments.( e cause it expensive to conduct on marine marine ecosystems) Focuses on acute eco toxicity data( does not consider long term or chronic exposure). No consideration of actual ecological effects.

Question 35

What are the most problematic groups in chemical pollution?

Answer 35

Pharmaceuticals, textiles and some frequently used household products (cleaners etc s.

Question 36

Examples of how chemical pollution operates.

Answer 36

Salmon have many predators , when injured salmon release a chemical cue to alert others who smell this chemical in the area to stop moving which essentially saves them from being preyed upon. The presence of chemicals like copper ion in water bodies inhibits the salmon ability to smelling making them more susceptible to be preyed upon. This happens at a very low concentration of copper ion.

Question 37

True or false: in most cases athe chemicals in the environment not only kill but affects key parts of an organism or ecosystem . Like reproduction, mutation etc.

Answer 37

True

Question 38

What is meant damage function ?

Answer 38

This is how harm a product or activity can cause to an aquatic ecosystem. It considers three things: Where the pollution goes (fate) How available it is to organisms (bioavailability) How to toxic it is to organisms (ecotoxicity).

Question 39

What is ecotoxicity?

Answer 39

This is the measure of how toxic a substance is to different species in an ecosystem. It considers the general sensitivity of the specie.