Bioaccumulation Workshop | Umweltbundesamt

Bioaccumulation plays a vital role in understanding the fate of a substance in the environment and is key to the regulation of chemicals in several jurisdictions. For instance within the European ⁠REACH⁠ regulation the assessment of the bioaccumulation potential is one major aspect in terms of identifying substances which are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB). The partitioning between a hydrophobic and hydrophilic phase (log KOW) as an indicator for bioaccumulation and the BCF as a standard criterion to identify bioaccumulative substances are approaches with limitations. The log KOW does not take into account active transport phenomena or special structural properties (e.g. amphiphilic substances or dissociating substances) Moreover, additional screening criteria are necessary for air breathing organisms as BCF studies are restricted to water-breathing fish and uptake through the gills. Though there are alternative tests such as the recently revised OECD 305 now including dietary uptake, it still remains unclear how to deal with results of alternative tests in regulation. All these aspects stress the importance to further improve the assessment of bioaccumulation.
This workshop will address current scientific issues concerning the assessment of bioaccumulation:

• screening criteria and approaches other than the Log KOW
• the elimination half-life of a chemical as possible alternative metric for bioaccumulation,
• organ specific accumulation,
• endpoints other than the BCF,
• and how to deal with alternative tests.

Results of recent research projects elucidating these issues and funded by the Federal Environment Agency will be presented and shall be discussed.

The workshop will take place in Dessau in one the seminar room 3.22 of the Bauhaus Building by Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus- and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau have been listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as an outstanding example of the Modern Movement in the 20th century. Between 1919 and 1933 the Bauhaus School, based first in Weimar and then in Dessau revolutionised artistic and architectural thinking and production worldwide. So apart from the workshop itself participants can enjoy the architecture and design of Bauhaus.

Venue address:
Bauhaus Dessau, Seminar Room 3.22,
Gropiusallee 38, 06846 Dessau-Roßlau www.bauhaus-dessau.de,
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/729

Accomodations:
NH-Hotel-Dessau
www.radissonblu.de/hotel-dessau
Or sleeping as a Bauhausler? http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/accommodation.html