May 5-6, 2006, the Hague, the Netherlands

The purpose of this workshop was to support European stakeholders from government, academia, and industry in their preparation for REACH by promoting advancement and global alignment on bioaccumulation (B) testing and assessment methods. Specific objectives are to: inform different participants in the REACH implementation on advances in B assessment methods, describe the developing framework for a cross-sector tiered approach for B assessments, review recent case studies, and discuss how a tiered approach may be developed to meet the needs in Europe and for REACH integration. Workshop participants will be government representatives from Europe and North America, experts from industry and academia, and international organizations. Talks will explain the background and technical rationale behind methods that could be considered in a tiered approach for B Assessments. These will include the whole spectrum of in silico models, in vitro and in vivo methods for B assessment.

The Workshop was the fourth B Workshop in a series coordinated by HESI, and was held immediately before the 16th SETAC-EU Annual Meeting (7-11 May 2006, the Hague, the Netherlands) and the 12th International Workshop on Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships in Environmental Toxicology (8-12 May 2006, Lyon, France). This EU ‘B’ Workshop will be contributed financially by HESI, the European Chemicals Bureau – Joint Research Centre (ECB-JRC), European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM-JRC), and SETAC-Europe. The HESI initiative for advancement of B assessment globally appears in an appropriate moment in the preparation for REACH implementation. This Workshop is expected to be particularly useful for providing input to the EU Working Group on Bioaccumulation, which is mandated to prepare Guidance for Integrated Testing Strategy (ITS) under the RIP 3.3-2. The participation of representatives of the RIP consortium and JRC (ECB and ECVAM) was sought to guarantee the effective exchange of information between the experts involved in B assessment in Europe and globally.

Workshop Deliverables/Outcomes:

• Harmonized strategy to integrate different information for B assessment
• Toolbox of methods that are 'ready' and can be used immediately, others that are in preparation and with minor refinements can be useful, or those in need of substantial work before they can be evaluated and used for regulatory B assessment

To access workshop materials and presentations, click here.