Comparison of two methods in deriving aquatic predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) for α-Amylcinnamaldehyde, 1-Tridecanol and Paracetamol

Sammanfattning: This study is evaluating two methods in order to calculate predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) used in environmental risk assessment for three chemicals (α-Amylcinnamaldehyde, 1-tridecanol and paracetamol). The methods used are Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD) and the guideline from European Chemicals Agency (ECHA): “Guidance on information requirements and chemical safety assessment”. The later method was conducted using both acute and chronic data. According to the PNEC value calculated the most toxic substance is 1-Tridecanol followed by α-Amylcinnamaldehyde and then Paracetamol which is the least toxic according to this study. A weakness using this kind of risk assessment is that the calculations are based on single species testing at a low organisation level which forms a gap in knowledge. When making an environmental risk assessment use the method with the lowest uncertainty if enough data is available, which in this study was SSD. The most toxic of the three evaluated chemicals was 1-tridecanol and the least toxic was paracetamol. One weakness with the use of toxicology data is that the available data usually are at the individual level on the organization hierarchy. This creates a gap between the level measured the level you want to measure.