Taking full advantage of modelling to better assess environmental risk due to xenobiotics

In the European Union, more than 100,000 man-made chemical substances are awaiting an environmental risk assessment (ERA). Simultaneously, ERA of chemicals has now entered a new era. Indeed, recent recommendations from regulatory bodies underline a crucial need for the use of mechanistic effect models, allowing assessments that are not only ecologically relevant, but also more integrative, consistent and efficient. At the individual level, toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic (TKTD) models are particularly encouraged for the regulatory assessment of pesticide-related risks on aquatic organisms. In this paper, we first propose a brief review of classical dose-response models to put into light the on-line MOSAIC tool offering all necessary services in a turnkey web platform whatever the type of data to analyze. Then, we focus on the necessity to account for the time-dimension of the exposure by illustrating how MOSAIC can support a robust calculation of bioaccumulation factors. At last, we show how MOSAIC can be of valuable help to fully complete the EFSA workflow regarding the use of TKTD models, especially with GUTS models, providing a user-friendly interface for calibrating, validating and predicting survival over time under any time-variable exposure scenario of interest. Our conclusion proposes a few lines of thought for an even easier use of modelling in ERA. Graphical art O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=82 SRC="FIGDIR/small/436474v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (26K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d98a72org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1066b4org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c6eef3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@71c528_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG