Adapting OAWG's Efforts to Meet and Address Environmental Challenges

Abstract

With the development of anthropogenic activities, environmental compartments are subject to direct or indirect pressures that can alter their quality and function. Restoring and/or preserving the quality of the environment, therefore, represents a major scientific, economic, and political challenge. The protection and stewardship of the environment and human health are paramount for moving towards an environment free of toxic substances. Toxic substances are omnipresent in our daily lives, and exposure can impact human health and the environment, degrading ecosystems, reducing biodiversity, and collapsing ecological networks. Among these toxic substances, organic micropollutants are mainly man-made substances used for industrial, agricultural, and/or domestic purposes. As a result of use and product disposal, pollutants are released and observed in various environmental compartments (air, water, and soil) through various processes. What's more, they can pass from one compartment to another and can travel long distances depending on their physicochemical properties. One of the current environmental challenges is, therefore, to monitor these organic micropollutants in the environment. As these pollutants are very numerous and it is not possible to organize comparison campaigns for all of them, the Environment Task Group, as part of the CCQM Organic Analysis Working Group, aims to prioritize the work to be carried out. Measurement challenges related to historical, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), are still important, but new challenges exist to address and establish quality measurement capabilities for emerging contaminants of concern. Both presently and recently, efforts in contaminants found to be persistent and bioaccumulate, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), some pesticides, additive products such as endocrine disruptor compounds (EDCs), organophosphate flame retardants, and antibiotics, are of growing importance. Further, due to high societal demand, rubber, plastic additives, and microplastics, including nanoplastics, have become critical areas of concern. Of note, many of these environmental pollutants have already been the focus of recent key studies, for example, PFAS in water (CCQM-K156), aflatoxin in acetonitrile (CCQM-K154.b), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in sediment (CCQM-K102). These areas of interest call for horizontal cooperation between Consultative Committee working groups and major stakeholders to define priority needs and to build an agenda and roadmap of priority programs. Additional areas of interest and effort are at the ISO level, where ISO/TC 147 "Water quality” and ISO/TC61 “Plastics” have developed a standard ISO/DIS 16094-3 “Water quality – Analysis of microplastics in water” and “Thermo-analytical methods for waters with low content of suspended solids including drinking water.” Necessary measurement capabilities are under development to target ultra-trace levels, often approaching method decision limits where substances indicate limited effect. Finally, the use of effect-based monitoring (EBM) approaches is another growing area as they might be introduced as screening methods in regulation. For example, surface water limits of estrogens 17-beta-estradiol and 17-alpha-ethinylestradiol are being considered for revisions in the EU, below the previously established “Predicted no-effect concentration” (PNEC) of 0.4 ng/L and 0.035 ng/L, respectively. Given the depth and breadth of the organic contaminants landscape, the Environmental Sector Task Group is working to prioritize and support global harmonization to meet stakeholder needs.