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Biomarkers and integrated environmental risk assessment: Are there more questions than answers?
Author(s) -
Hagger Josephine A,
Jones Malcolm B,
Leonard DR Paul,
Owen Richard,
Galloway Tamara S
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
integrated environmental assessment and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1551-3793
pISSN - 1551-3777
DOI - 10.1002/ieam.5630020403
Subject(s) - water framework directive , european commission , risk assessment , environmental risk assessment , risk analysis (engineering) , directive , environmental planning , environmental impact assessment , environmental quality , process (computing) , environmental resource management , management science , environmental science , european union , computer science , water quality , business , engineering , ecology , biology , computer security , programming language , economic policy , operating system
The introduction of the European Commission's Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) established a new era in environmental risk assessment. In addition to incorporating the compliance of chemical quality standards, the key objective of the WFD is the general protection of the aquatic environment in its entirety. This new approach emphasizes the need for an integrated environmental risk assessment and offers the potential for the incorporation of biological effects measures, including the use of biomarkers in this process. Biomarkers have been suggested as practical tools for environmental management for a number of decades, but their inclusion has not been universally accepted because of a number of unanswered questions regarding sensitivity, practicality, and reproducibility. With this in mind, this paper addresses these potential questions and shows how, by taking a weight‐of‐evidence approach, biomarkers may be successfully incorporated within environmental risk assessment frameworks such as the WFD.