CONTRAST prioritisation tool: filtering and ranking contaminants of emerging concern in the marine environment using hazard-based approaches
- Year of publication
- 2025
- Journal
- Environmental Sciences Europe
- Contributors
- Putu Yolanda Yulikayani, Bavo De Witte, Aasim Ali, Jon Barber, Juan Bellas, Nicolas Briant, Steven Brooks, Are Sæle Bruvold, Megan Anne French, Ketil Hylland, Helen Kaberi, Víctor M. León, Samantha Eslava Martins, Aourell Mauffret, Francesca Molinari, Malcolm James Reid, Joachim Sturve, Christof Van Poucke, Stig Valdersnes, Christophe Walgraeve, Kristof Demeestere, Aina Charlotte Wennberg
Aina Charlotte Wennberg
Samantha Goncalves Prat
Malcolm Reid
Steven Brooks
Summary
Increasing numbers of chemicals with little-known adverse effects are released into the marine environment. The present study addresses the lack of marine-specific prioritisation schemes by developing a prioritisation tool for organic contaminants. This tool supports decision-making processes regarding which chemicals to study further in terms of their occurrences and biological effects in the marine environment. It was supported by a database containing approximately 1.13 million chemicals, developed within the PikMe project. Criteria for chemical prioritisation were identified by a comprehensive literature review, then selected using the outcomes of a survey among experts. The prioritisation tool consists of filtering chemicals in the PikMe database using three parallel schemes—persistence and bioaccumulation, toxicity, and persistence and mobility characteristics (step 1)—followed by scoring based on modes of action, occurrence, and emission (step 2) and ranking by the final score (step 3).