Further development of screening tests for the evaluation of potential PBT substances

Assessing the persistency of chemicals in general involves a stepwise approach. This includes cost effective and easy to conduct screening tests, that may lead to a need for more complex, lengthy and expensive tests which try to simulate conditions being more representative for the environmental compartments water, sediment and soil. The former tests lead to conclusions about the substance’s degradation potential, the latter allow to deviate degradation half-lives that can be compared with the compartment specific persistency criteria. There are no tests established yet to close the gap between screening and simulations tests. This project evaluated potential enhancements for existing screening test methods and provides suggestions for establishing a new test method for assessing the biodegradation of chemicals.