Blog Archive 2020

Archive of wca's blogs from 2020

Developing understanding of the fate and behaviour of silver in fresh waters and waste waters

December 14, 2020 by Adam Peters

Adam and Graham have been working with researchers from the Wilfred Laurier University and the University of Waterloo in Canada, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, and Unilever to investigate the speciation of silver in both wastewaters and natural waters.

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Developing understanding of the fate and behaviour of silver in fresh waters and waste waters

SETAC-North America: SETAC SciCon2 Round-up

December 2, 2020 by Grace Panter

It was a busy week for Adam and Graham participating in the virtual SETAC North America 41st Annual Meeting - SETAC SciCon2 between the 15th and 19th of November 2020. wca were involved in a number of presentations and posters on topics.

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SETAC-North America: SETAC SciCon2 Round-up

SETAC North America: SciCon2

November 30, 2020 by Adam Peters

The SETAC North America meeting has been held as a virtual conference recently (SciCon2) and Adam co-chaired a session with Chris Mebane of the USGS

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SETAC North America: SciCon2

Updated UK REACH guidance

October 27, 2020 by Olivia Tran

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published detailed guidance to comply with UK REACH.

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Updated UK REACH guidance

Perspectives on Relevancy Assessment for Non Standard Ecotoxicity Data in Environment Quality Standard derivation: Examples for Diclofenac

October 15, 2020 by Graham Merrington

Graham, Adam and Dean have just published the paper "Perspectives on Relevancy Assessment for Non Standard Ecotoxicity Data in Environment Quality Standard derivation: Examples for Diclofenac" in Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

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Perspectives on Relevancy Assessment for Non Standard Ecotoxicity Data in Environment Quality Standard derivation: Examples for Diclofenac

Demonstrating the Reliability of Bio‐Met for Determining Compliance with Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for Metals in Europe

October 5, 2020 by Adam Peters

Adam and Graham have been working with colleagues in Arche Consulting, NiPERA, IZA and ECI to evaluate the reliability of the simplified metal bioavailability tool bio-met for copper, nickel, and zinc.

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Demonstrating the Reliability of Bio‐Met for Determining Compliance with Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for Metals in Europe

Deriving a bioavailability-based zinc environmental quality standard for France

September 24, 2020 by Graham Merrington

wca and colleagues at the International Zinc Association have derived a bioavailability-based zinc EQS for France following recently updated European Technical Guidance.

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Deriving a bioavailability-based zinc environmental quality standard for France

New guidance on UK REACH

September 4, 2020 by Olivia Tran

Defra published new guidance on UK REACH on 1 September. The new framework will be administered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and will come into effect on 1 January 2021, regardless of the outcome of the UK-EU trade negotiations.

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New guidance on UK REACH

Implications for the EU Ecolabel in the UK after Brexit: an update

August 12, 2020 by Olivia Tran

New EU guidance for products with the EU Ecolabel awarded by the UK Competent Authority, no indication for a national product ecolabelling scheme in the UK post-Brexit

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Implications for the EU Ecolabel in the UK after Brexit: an update

Preparing for UK REACH

August 7, 2020 by Becky Marks

With just months to go until the likely implementation of UK REACH, plans are being made to prepare for the new system. Companies are focussed on understanding how UK REACH registration will work and what it will mean for them, aiming to ensure a smooth transition of substances to UK REACH while maintaining access to the EU market.

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Preparing for UK REACH

Genotoxicity testing – combined in vivo micronucleus and comet assays

July 28, 2020 by Kate Roylance

ECHA’s Member State Committee has recently confirmed that a combined in vivo comet assay (OECD 489) and micronucleus test (OECD 474) will be considered as one study for regulatory purposes. This can help to reduce animal testing and testing costs, when substances cause concern for both gene mutation and chromosomal damage from in vitro tests.

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Genotoxicity testing – combined in vivo micronucleus and comet assays

Analysis of Alternatives is gaining importance in Europe

July 24, 2020 by Olivia Tran

Analysis of Alternatives has a key role to play in safer chemicals and the Circular Economy.

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Analysis of Alternatives is gaining importance in Europe

ECHA report on alternatives to in vivo testing

July 8, 2020 by Rhiannon Smith

In June, ECHA issued a report to the European Commission on how REACH registrants are applying alternatives to in vivo testing.

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ECHA report on alternatives to in vivo testing

REACH registration dossiers: Grouping speeds up the evaluation process

July 6, 2020 by Sylwia Kosmala-Grzechnik

The second report on Integrated Regulatory Strategy , entitled ‘Grouping speeds up regulatory action’, released recently by ECHA, provides an update on the current status of registration dossiers evaluations and the steps undertaken in order to accelerate this process.

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REACH registration dossiers: Grouping speeds up the evaluation process

ECHA SME verification

June 19, 2020 by Rhiannon Smith

One of the topics discussed in the draft motion for a resolution on chemicals strategy for sustainability published in February was requests for further support for SMEs to comply with chemical legislation. Last week ECHA released a webinar on verifying SME status and the steps that companies need to take to ensure they have correctly declared their company size.

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ECHA SME verification

The future of the EU chemicals strategy

June 17, 2020 by Rhiannon Smith

Last week, the EU parliament’s environment committee held a meeting to discuss the draft motion for a resolution, which lists the aims and considerations which the parliament want included in the EU’s chemical strategy, due to be released this autumn. The strategy sets out ways to deliver the green deal presented by the European Commission last year.

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The future of the EU chemicals strategy

SETAC SciCon

June 1, 2020 by Graham Merrington

wca participated in the SciCON SETAC’s 30th Annual European meeting between May the 3rd and 7th of May 2020. We were involved with presentations and posters on metals on the development of Multiple Linear Regression models to account for nickel bioavailability in Australian freshwaters, performing ERA for nickel in the tropics, deriving national bioavailability-based specific pollutant EQS, the target and the validation of simplified tools for implementing EQSs.

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SETAC SciCon

Update on COVID-19

May 15, 2020 by Dean Leverett

In my previous blog on how wca are coping with the Covid-19 outbreak, I promised further blog updates as the situation developed.

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Update on COVID-19

Statement on COVID-19

March 17, 2020 by Dean Leverett

At this difficult and testing time for everyone, I thought it might be useful to highlight the arrangements that wca are putting in place to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.

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Statement on COVID-19

Market Research for Authorisation under REACH

March 3, 2020 by Ed Stutt

ECHA has recently published a report based on a project conducted by wca at the end of last year. Working in collaboration with ECHA, Ed and Olivia carried out market research to estimate the number of applications for 11 substances of very high concern (SVHCs) that the European Commission added to the Authorisation List in February 2020.

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Market Research for Authorisation under REACH

Draft Regulation sets strict deadlines for registrants to update their REACH registration dossiers

February 10, 2020 by Sylwia Kosmala-Grzechnik

ECHA’s concerns that companies are not keeping their REACH registrations up to date has led to the drafting of an Implementing Regulation, setting out a deadline of 3 months for submitting administrative updates, and deadlines of 6 or 12 months for updates which are considered more complex and require generating new data or changes in the safety assessment.

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Draft Regulation sets strict deadlines for registrants to update their REACH registration dossiers

Conference on Current Issues in Contaminated Land

January 15, 2020 by Ed Stutt

At the end of 2019 Ed attended a conference on Current Issues in Contaminated Land hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment (SoBRA).

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Conference on Current Issues in Contaminated Land

10 years at wca

January 13, 2020 by Rhiannon Smith

At the start of a new year, and a new decade, it is a time for reflecting on the past and looking to the future. As we return at the start of 2020, both Becky and Rhiannon are celebrating having been at wca for 10 years.

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10 years at wca

Latest updates

July 19, 2021 by Graham Merrington

Using Water Framework Directive Watch List Data Sets to Estimate Europe‐wide Chemical Exposures and Potential Aquatic Risks: Representativity and Uncertainty?

We at wca been working over the last year and a half on the exposure data for some of the Watch List substances under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), including diclofenac, to assess the reliability and representativity of these monitoring data for use in EU-wide risk assessment.

June 17, 2021 by Rhiannon Smith

Employee Ownership Day

Did you know that 25 June is employee ownership day? wca are proud to be an employee owned company and will be celebrating this day along with a wide variety of other employee owned companies.

May 10, 2021 by Dean Leverett

Pharmaceuticals in the Environment - a Global Challenge Session at SETAC Europe

Dean Leverett co-chaired a live virtual discussion on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment in the final session block of SETAC Europe 2021.