Towards a harmonised approach for collection and interpretation of data on emerging substances in the environment in support of European environmental policies

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Towards a harmonised approach for collection and
interpretation of data on emerging substances in
the environment in support of European
environmental policies

• Jaroslav Slobodnik
• Workshop on Data Exchange, Berlin, 20-21 April
  2011

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Objectives
Harmonised collection and interpretation of data
on emerging substances

• A proposal of the harmonised format of collected
  data in various environmental matrices allowing
  for their inter-comparison across Europe
• The use of metadata for assessment of quality of
  data
• A possibility of regular and/or automated data
  collection at the EU scale
•  A possibility of using the NORMAN approach for
  prioritisation of emerging substances, e.g. in
  the process of selection of future WFD priority
  substances
• The use of the data in support of European
  environmental policies and data collection
  activities by EEA, DG JRC, DG EUROSTAT and DG
  ENV
• Presentation of the data to the public.

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Establishment of the Chemical Data Centre

• Jaroslav Slobodnik
• Workshop on Data Exchange, Berlin, 20-21 April
  2011

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Chemical Data Centre
Background - Chemical monitoring activities in
the EU

• Carried out by MSs as a consequence of national,
  regional and EU legislation/initiatives or
  obligations/initiatives from international
  conventions or international organisations
• 1. To ensure that the emission standards,
  residue limits or environmental and health
  quality standards are respected
• 2. To assess exposure of the environment and
  humans to chemicals.
• Significant amounts of monitoring data are
  generated by the scientific community

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Chemical Data Centre
Background - Chemical monitoring activities in
the EU state-of-the-art

• Categories (by matrix type and purpose) that
  function well
• Emission monitoring - water gas
  effluents/discharges - data collection well
  established at EU level (EEA) - data accessible
  to the general public in the European Pollutant
  Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)
• Food and feed monitoring (EFSA) - to ensure
  food/feed safety for consumers animals or to
  estimate population exposures - data collection
  in ongoing basis by networking with EU Member
  States and by cooperation with European and
  international organizations

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Chemical Data Centre
Background - Chemical monitoring activities in
the EU state-of-the-art

• Categories (by matrix type and purpose) that have
  to be improved
• Environmental monitoring data not
  systematically collected at EU level despite
  considerable and longstanding efforts (e.g.
  WISE, AIRBASE (EEA)) limited to a very small
  subset of existing monitoring data mainly to
  data required through mandatory reporting under
  the EU legislation
• Data from human biomonitoring - currently not
  being collected at the EU level - 2 EU projects
  (COPHES and DEMOCOPHES) to contribute to better
  data comparability across the EU still ex-post
  a sustainable data collection system will be
  essential for exploitation of results
• Product monitoring - data from regular compliance
  checks on the presence of chemicals in products
  are not collected at the EU level only when a
  serious risk to the health and safety of
  consumers is evident - rapid alert system for
  non-food consumer products (RAPEX)

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Chemical Data Centre
Background - Outlining the roadmap

• State-of-the-art - summary Lack of coherent and
  effective collection, cross-referencing,
  management and assessment of data hindering the
  ability to assess the levels and trends in the
  chemical burden on the human population and the
  environment
• Need Better coordinated integrated approach to
  the collection, management and assessment of the
  existing data with adequate and comprehensive
  metadata
• Expected results
• Improved assessment of relevant legislation,
  protection of EU citizens and the environment
• Facilitated generation and management of the
  data, measurement methodologies and QA/QC across
  the different domains.

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Chemical Data Centre
The roadmap

• DG ENV, DG EUROSTAT, DG DG JRC, and EEA already
  set up the existing environmental data centres in
  2005 to ensure the provision of robust data on
  the state of the environment, pressures, impacts
  and responses for success in the conception,
  development, implementation, monitoring and
  further improvement of environmental policies.
• EEA - climate, air, water, biodiversity land
  use
• DG JRC - soil forests
• DG EUROSTAT - waste, resources products
• Data centres - the primary data contact point
  for DG ENV in order to fulfill DG ENV's
  information needs, and to ensure that the
  collected data fit DG ENV's requirements.
• Directive 2007/2/EC (European Spatial Data
  Infrastructure (INSPIRE)) - common rules to
  enable interoperable services on viewing and
  exchanging environmental data across the
  different environmental media BUT still there
  is no overarching approach to chemicals over
  different media such as water, air, etc.
•  
• Idea Create a Chemical Data Centre (of similar
  to the existing environmental data centres) for
  water, climate change, air, biodiversity, land
  use, soil, forestry, waste, natural resources and
  integrated product policy - to address the above
  shortcomings.

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Chemical Data Centre
Tasks

• Should be similar to the existing data centres
  supported by the 'group of four' (EEA, DG JRC, DG
  EUROSTAT and DG ENV), thus, should be developed
  along the lines described for the existing data
  centres
• Should develop an integrated system for chemical
  monitoring data in the EU and should cover all
  chemical monitoring data except from food, feed
  and emission monitoring as their collection and
  assessment are well established
• Should provide basic services of collecting and
  aggregating the data related to a specific
  chemical across the different media
• To develop a de-centralized system which should
  utilize as much as possible the established
  databases at international, EU and national level
  and the functionalities developed by the existing
  data centres
• As a main challenge, should ensure a more
  effective use of existing data sources rather
  than to generate new information
• Should constitute a resource available to all
  Commission services, Member States and other
  interested users.

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Chemical Data Centre
Benefits

• Facilitating the identification/prioritisation
  of substances for various regimes of
  environmental legislation (SVHC for REACH,
  priority substances for WFD, nomination of POPs)
• Facilitating the exposure assessment for risk
  assessment of chemicals (industrial chemicals,
  pesticides, biocides, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
• Allowing comprehensive exposure assessment for
  mixtures of chemicals and the risk assessment of
  mixtures
• Facilitating the evaluation of the
  effectiveness of chemical and related
  legislation/policies (such as REACH, WFD, MSFD,
  POP Regulation, Biocides Directive, PPP
  Regulation, Regulations on pharmaceuticals, IPPC
  Directive, etc.)
• Providing a reporting tool for obligatory and
  voluntary reporting of monitoring data and for
  data from FP research projects
• Acting as an early warning system for emerging
  pollutants and subsequent policy action
• Allowing better overall evaluation of the state
  of environment.

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Chemical Data Centre
Possible target roles of NORMAN in Chemical Data
Centre

• In general, NORMAN should contribute to the
  development of a harmonised approach for
  collection and interpretation of environmental
  data.
• In particular, by
• Being the primary data source for emerging
  substances
• Being acknowledged as one of the main actors in
  proposing substances for environmental
  legislation
• Providing its experiences, data and tools as a
  basis for the identification/prioritisation of
  substances of concern
• Contributing to the architecture of the data
  center (definition of a harmonized data
  collection reported parameters, especially the
  QC/QA features)
• Contributing to the creation of the early
  warning system for emerging pollutants and
  subsequent policy actions.