PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
EU regulations seek to identify and mitigate the risks of environmental exposure of people and wildlife to harmful chemicals. However, there are more than 60,000 chemicals in use in Europe and risk assessment is a laborious process that is often hampered by a lack of data. There is a fundamental need to improve and speed up the prioritisation of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) compounds for detailed risk assessment. PBT chemicals are not readily degraded and have the potential to accumulate along the food chain.
Apex predators are particularly well suited to contaminant monitoring for risk assessment and management for several reasons: they strongly bioaccumulate PBT chemicals; they integrate contaminant exposure over time and over relatively large areas; most species are relatively easily collected and sampled; and populations can be easily monitored and quantified. Targeted analyses can reveal which compounds are the most prevalent and occur in the highest concentrations in apex predators and can provide a powerful means of identifying and prioritising risk from the whole gamut of environmental chemicals, and provide early warning of potential risk. Monitoring of residues in apex predators and their prey can show the effectiveness of risk mitigation measures and can also identify the emergence of substitute chemicals which may present similar levels of hazard.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE APEX project aimed to enable regulators of chemicals to make more systematic use of monitoring data from apex predators and prey. The objective was to reduce exposure to harmful substances and protect human health and the environment.
Data from apex predators and prey samples would be used to detect the presence of chemical contaminants in the environment, help pick the most relevant substances for further hazard assessment, assess the impact and effectiveness of substance risk mitigation measures, and define predominant chemical mixtures in the environment.
To support and sustain regulatory take-up of these applications, the project team aimed to assess relevant resources and capacities for replication and transfer and engage key partners. It would also enhance quality assurance of sampling, processing, archiving and analysis of apex predator and prey samples and resulting data, and make it easier to access and compare those samples and data. The project involved partners in Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as the coordinating beneficiary in Slovakia.
LIFE APEX directly relates to EU chemical regulations, namely REACH Regulation and the Regulation on Biocides. It also indirectly would support the implementation of several other policies, including the Regulation on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Birds Directive and Water Framework Directive.
RESULTS
The LIFE APEX improved the management of chemicals used in monitoring of apex predators and prey. It first identified the chemicals accumulating in the environment through terrestrial, freshwater and marine food webs, before prioritising the chemicals for hazard assessment. It then sought to improve the evaluation of their risk mitigation and the determination of predominant chemical mixtures in the environment.
Key to the success of the project was the creation of a Europe-wide community bringing together environmental specimen banks, national history museums and analytical labs for assessing apex predators and prey. The project also focused on promoting harmonised quality assurance for sampling, sample treatment and archiving across Europe. It established the APEX database, which allows access to comparable and interoperable sample data and related contaminant data from both targeted and non-target screening analyses. The database consists of:
- A sample catalogue containing 104 entries;
- Chemical occurrence data, which comprised 953,444 entries on 3,253 targeted substances as of the end of October 2022; and
- Digital sample freezing platform containing data on mass chromatograms for retrospective screening of environmental samples. It enables suspect screening of environmentally relevant pollutants from the NORMAN Substance Database in all raw chromatograms.
The project cooperated with partners across Europe and globally that were willing to share their analyses data in a harmonised format (e.g., OSPAR (North-East Atlantic, CONNECT project), ICPDR (Danube River Basin; Joint Danube Survey 4), HELCOM (Baltic Sea, Pre-EMPT and UBA-HELCOM projects), Black Sea (EU/UNDP EMBLAS projects), Antarctica (NORMAN), or the European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility COST Action (CA16224). The project prepared and widely disseminated guidance documents on quality assurance criteria, measures and protocols for sampling, processing and archiving of apex predators and prey samples, analysis of chemical contaminants, and assessing quality of contaminant data. Other guidelines concerned assessment of PBT properties of contaminants in apex predator and prey samples and protocols for regulatory applications.
Finally, the project raised awareness among regulators (ECHA and Member State competent authorities) of the advantages of making more and better use of monitoring data from biota, and in particular from apex predators, for risk assessments and evaluation of effectiveness of risk management measures according to REACH legislation.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's Layman report (see "Read more" section).
