ET&C Call for Papers: Simulating Aquatic Environmental Degradation in Laboratory Tests – Towards a Meaningful Persistence Assessment

Understanding the degradation of chemicals in the environment is essential for predicting their concentrations and assessing their persistence. Persistent chemicals are of great concern as they can distribute widely, reach high concentrations, and induce environmental exposures that are potentially difficult to control and reverse. Persistence assessment of chemicals is therefore a key piece in international frameworks and serves as a cornerstone for effective chemical regulation. The OECD Test Guideline No. 309, “Aerobic Mineralisation in Surface Water – Simulation Biodegradation Test,” is frequently employed to assess degradation – or a chemicals recalcitrance toward degradation – in aquatic environments. However, this guideline, last updated in April 2004, has since faced increasing challenges and limitations that have raised concerns about its reliability, relevance and accuracy in simulating and evaluating a chemical’s degradation behavior in natural surface water bodies. Indeed, a 2021–2023 German Environment Agency (UBA) project, which reviewed the state of science in OECD environmental assessment guidelines, identified the OECD Test Guideline No. 309 as one of the highest-priority guidelines for revision.

Key issues include, but are not limited to, the robustness of the test, i.e., its reproducibility across different test conditions allowable within the test guideline, and its relevance, i.e., whether it accurately reflects degradation processes in real-world aquatic environments. This is particularly significant because the test's core goal, to assess co-metabolic degradation under conditions that mirror the environment, may not be effectively achieved under the experimental conditions currently allowed within the guideline.

These shortcomings have important implications for chemical risk management, as they hinder the ability to assess the environmental impact of chemicals accurately. With a revision of the OECD Test Guideline No. 309 currently under discussion (referencing the July 2024 OECD Work Plan – Project 3.20), now is a crucial time to address these issues, highlight the state of the science today, collect on-going research efforts and refine the test to ensure it produces more robust, reliable, and meaningful results for environmental assessment in the future.

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Ready to Submit

Submit your manuscript by 15 June to Special Issue/Section: “Environmental Degradation.”

For more information, contact guest editor Louise Camenzuli or the ET&C Editorial Office.