The recently adopted sediment quality assessment framework for evaluating bay and estuarine sediments in the state of California incorporates bulk sediment chemistry as a key line of evidence (LOE) but does not address the bioavailability of measured contaminants. Thus, the chemistry-based LOE likely does not provide an accurate depiction of organism exposure in all cases, nor is it particularl...

Contamination has a dramatic impact on the health of ecosystem and habitat suitability for the inhabited flora and fauna. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates an ecological risk assessment (ERA) that evaluates the potential adverse impact of any anthropogenic activities on the ecosystem (US Environmental Protection Agency, 1997. Ecological Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund: P...

The remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater is essential toward the development of a sustainable society. However, remediation activities at various stages will also inherently add a significant burden of environmental footprints. Green remediation is thus increasingly recognized in the recent years by various regulatory agencies, responsible parties, remediation engineers, and various...

Heterogeneity of contaminants in soils can vary spatially over a range of scales, causing uncertainty in environmental measurements of contaminant concentrations. Sampling designs may aim to reduce the impact of on-site heterogeneity, by using composite sampling, increased sample mass and offsite homogenisation, yet they could overlook the small scale heterogeneity that can have significant imp...

Organochlorines and heavy metals have bioaccumulated in Arctic wildlife, which is an important food source for the Inuit. In this study, we have developed a statistical model to describe the population distribution of contaminant exposure and the usual intake of the high-end contaminant consumers. Monte Carlo methods are used to account for variations due to seasonal dietary pattern and contami...

Standardized ecotoxicological tests still constitute the fundamental tools when doing riskassessment of aquatic contaminants. These protocols are managed towards minimal mortality in the controls, which is not representative for natural systems where mortality is often high. This methodological bias, generated from assays where mortality in the control group is systematically disregarded, makes...

Current water quality guidelines for reclaimed wastewater have predominantly addressed risks associated with the presence of microbial organisms. Comparatively, chemical parameters have been largely overlooked or inadequately considered. Acceptable levels of chemical parameters will be dependant on the proposed reuse applications for the water and, in many cases, site-specific factors such as t...

3. The Codex principles of risk analysis, particularly those for risk assessment, are primarily intended to apply to discrete chemical entities such as food additives and pesticide residues, or a specific chemical or microbial contaminant that have identifiable hazards and risks; they are not intended to apply to whole foods as such. Indeed, few foods have been assessed scientifically in a mann...

Mobile colloidal particles have been identified to be involved in a broad variety of environmentally relevant processes. A considerable number of these processes may have hazardous consequences. Most recently, mobile colloidal particles have been reported to be a potentially relevant transport pathway for strongly sorbing contaminants. Thereby the colloidal particles act as highly mobile contam...