Euro Chlor risk assessment for the marine environment OSPARCOM region: North sea - Tetrachloroethylene

This risk assessment on tetrachloroethylene (PER) was carried out specifica lly for the marine environment, according to the methodology laid down in t he EU risk assessment Regulation (1488/94) and the Guidance Document of the EU New and Existing Substances Regulation (TGD, 1997). The study consists of the collection and evaluation of data on effects and environmental conce ntrations from analytical monitoring programs in large rivers and estuaries in the North Sea area. The risk is indicated by the ratio of the "predicte d environmental concentrations" (PEC) and the "predicted no effect concentr ations" (PNEC) for the marine aquatic environment. In total, 18 studies for fish, 13 studies for invertebrates and 8 studies for algae have been evalu ated. Both acute and chronic toxicity studies have been taken into account and the appropriate assessment factors have been used to define a PNEC valu e of 51 mu g/l. Most of the available monitoring data apply to rivers and e stuary waters and were used to calculate PECs. The most recent data (1991-1 995) support a typical PEC of 0.2 mu g PER/l water and a worst case PEC of 2.5 mu g PER/l water. The calculated PEC/PNEC ratios give a safety margin o f 20 to 250 between the predicted no effect concentration and the exposure concentration. Additional evaluation of environmental fate and bioaccumulat ion characteristics showed that no concern is expected for food chain accum ulation.