Latest blog posts
UK REACH: Deadline for grandfathering fast approaching
March 2, 2021 by Becky Marks
Under UK REACH, UK-based companies with existing registrations under EU REACH can benefit from grandfathering these into the UK system. This option applies for any UK-based company that held an…
Plant Protection Products – gearing up for IUCLID
February 17, 2021 by Becky Marks
From 27th March 2021 the Transparency Regulation (EU 1381/2019) will come into force, which aims to increase transparency of data and decision making for risk assessments in the…
Use of the Xenopus eleutheroembyronic thyroid assay (XETA) in endocrine assessments
February 9, 2021 by Grace Panter
Becky Brown and myself recently attended an interesting webinar by European Food Safety Authority/European Chemicals Agency (EFSA/ECHA) on how to consider the Xenopus eleuthereombryonic thyroid assay (XETA) in the assessment strategy of…
An Irish Adventure
January 14, 2021 by Dean Leverett
Since the formation of wca environment Ltd in 2005, the company has operated out of a single office in southern England. During 2020, with the end of the Brexit transition…
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…
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…
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 on the derivation and use…
Updated UK REACH guidance
October 27, 2020
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published 11 webpages with detailed guidance to comply with UK REACH. More information has been provided on some key issues below. Data requirements: All…
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…
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…
Deriving a bioavailability-based zinc environmental quality standard for France
September 24, 2020 by Graham Merrington
Adam, Iain and I, along with colleagues at the International Zinc Association have derived a bioavailability-based zinc Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for France following recently updated European Technical Guidance,…
New guidance on UK REACH
September 4, 2020 by Olivia Tran
Defra published new guidance on UK REACH on 1 September1. The new framework will be administered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and will come into effect on…
Implications for the EU Ecolabel in the UK after Brexit: an update
August 12, 2020 by Olivia Tran
The European Commission released guidance1 at the end of June on EU Ecolabels awarded by the UK Competent Authority under the Withdrawal Agreement and transitional period. Companies with EU Ecolabelled-products awarded…
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…
Genotoxicity testing – combined in vivo micronucleus and comet assays
July 28, 2020 by Kate Roylance
Genotoxicity testing is required under REACH for substances registered at Annex VII and above. The purpose of genotoxicity testing is to determine whether a substance will cause a mutagenic hazard…
Analysis of Alternatives is gaining importance in Europe
July 24, 2020 by Olivia Tran
Olivia Tran recently completed an ECHA training course on ‘analysis of alternatives’ (AoA) for hazardous substances. AoA is required to support applications for substance Restriction and Authorisation under REACH but…
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 progress under the REACH regulation on the reduction of in vivo testing. The report discusses aspects which have been implemented by…
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…
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.
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…