Papers in the Biological Sciences
Date of this Version
2009
Abstract
Recent reviews of the state-of-the-art of ecological modeling for risk assessments have highlighted the need for standardization of modeling approaches (Pastorok et al. 2003; Grimm et al. 2009). Such standardization requires concerted actions with all stakeholders involved in the regulatory process.
Therefore, a new SETAC-Europe Advisory Group on “Mechanistic effect models for ecological risk assessment of chemicals” (MEMoRisk) was established in autumn 2008. During the SETAC-Europe Annual Meeting in Warsaw in May 2008, 21 people joined the founding meeting where the necessity, scope and aim of such a group were discussed. A founding steering committee (the authors of this paper) was selected to prepare a proposal and to bring the advisory group into life.
The overall aim of the advisory group is to explore and evaluate the benefit of mechanistic effect modeling for the risk assessment of chemicals in Europe and elsewhere as appropriate. This will be done by establishing a forum for better communication and cooperation of scientists in academia, industry and government working on or with mechanistic modeling to analyze and predict effects of chemicals on organisms, populations and communities.
Comments
Published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research 16 (2009), pp. 250–252; doi: 10.1007/s11356-009-0124-6 Copyright © 2009 Springer-Verlag. Used by permission.