• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) has been used to establish environmental quality standards or evaluate ecological risk in site-specific areas. The scope of ERA was expanded based on regions, and the concept of regional-scale ecological risk assessment was recently introduced in developed countries. In the present study, regional ERA approaches of relative risk model (RRM), contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (CATS) model, and procedure for ecological tired assessment of risks (PETAR) in advanced countries were extensively investigated. Regional ERA was compared with traditional ERA process. Stressors, receptor and response in traditional ERA were replaced with sources of stressors, habitats, and ecological impacts, respectively in regional ERA. This study introduces the concept and assessment process of regional ERA, and provides a wide perspective how the relative ERA could be applied in Korean ecosystem.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.15 no.1_2
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• pp.19-29
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• 2000

Acetanilide may be released into the environment through air and wastewater from its production and use sites as an intermediate in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and dyes. Acetanilide is biodegraded rapidly under aerobic conditions and decomposed by indirect photolysis in the presence of OH radicals. An estimated bioconcentration factor of 4.5 suggests that bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms is low. Ecotoxicological data on acetanilide exist on acute toxicity to fishes of 4 species only. According to the EUSES system, the lowest PNEC (Predicted no effect concentration) in fishes is 0.01 mg/1 and PEC (Predicted environmental concentration) for surface water on a regional scale is 9.1$\times$10$\^$－5/mg/l as the worst case. RCR (Risk characterization ratio) of acetanilide for surface water on a regional scale was estimated as 9.1$\times$10-3, which is safe enough for fishes, RCR on a local basis slightly exceeds the value 1 in water and sediment; that is, 1.3 and 1.6, respectively, which suggests the existence of ecotoxicological risk at the vicinity of the manufacturing site. For the refinement of environmental risk assessment on acetanilide, more data should be collected regarding prolonged fish toxicity, acute toxicity toward daphnia and algae. It is, therefore, recommended that acetanilide should be a candidate for further work to supplement the lacking data until it is proved to be safe in the ecotoxicological aspects.