Predictive approach to ecotoxicological properties for use in a rating system in the hazard assessment of pesticides

The development of standard approaches for the assessment of pesticide haza rd for the environment is important for proper chemical management In previ ous studies risk indexes were developed for different environmental systems (surface water, terrestrial ecosystems) and applied to several pesticides. However, due to the lack of information (both on physical-chemical and tox icological properties), the application of these indexes was limited to a r elatively small number of pesticides. In this context, a predictive approac h seems to be the right way to produce unavailable data. In order to apply the risk indexes, several QSAR (Quantitative Structure Activity Relationshi p) and QICAR (Quantitative Interspecific Chemical Activity Relationship) mo dels for herbicides are presented in this work and briefly discussed. The r esults of the application of some QSAR and QICAR based risk indexes are sho wn.