December 2022

Hazard of the calendar...three publications to celebrate the completion of three great projects at the end of this year!

_Our Water Europe white paper "Towards a zero pollution strategy for contaminants of emerging concern in the urban water cycle" has been published on the Water Europe website.

_ Our open access paper published in the Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management journal to know what are the sources of copper into the European aquatic environment.

_ DERAC had also the privilege to contribute to the JRC Technical Guidance on Threshold Values (TVs) for Marine Contaminants, which supports the implementation of the EU Maritime Safety Framework Directive.

We wish you a good reading, a merry Christmas and a happy new year 2023!

January&February 2022

Vous cherchez un partenaire pertinent pour vos projets de R&D?
Dr Geneviève Deviller a obtenu le renouvellement de son agrément CIR par le ministère en charge de la Recherche pour 2022-2023-2024.
L'agrément permet de confirmer le potentiel de DERAC pour faire de la R&D et d'ouvrir droit au crédit d'impôt recherche pour les dépenses engagées par une entreprise dans des opérations de recherche ou d'innovation.Pour en savoir plus et connaître les dépenses de recherche externalisées ouvrant droit au CIR, contactez nous.

December 2021

DERAC wishes you an happy Christmas and all the very best for 2022!

May 2021

Making Waves: Collaboration in the time of SARS-CoV-2 - rapid development of an international co-operation and wastewater surveillance database to support public health decision-making

I am very happy to share this work, which is the result of a rapidly developed international research effort under the leadership of the NORMAN and SCORE networks to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Clicking on this link before July 07, 2021 will give you direct access to the final version of our article on ScienceDirect. No sign up, registration or fees are required.

April 2021

Our integrated study on POPs Burden, Trophic Magnification and Risk in a Pelagic Food Web from Coastal NW Mediterranean Sea is now available online!

 Pelagic food web (including phytoplankton, zooplankton, six fish, and two cephalopods species) identified as a comprehensive ‘bioindicator’ of the POP pollution status in an impacted area from coastal NW Mediterranean Sea
Estimated integrated burden in the food web reaching ~ 18 μg/g lipid weight (sum of PCBs, PCDD/Fs and PBDEs). High storage capacity of the planktonic compartment for PBDEs and PCDD/Fs.
Assessed risk for humans via consumption of Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda) and Chub mackerel (Scomber colias) due to dioxin-like POPs exposure.

 Link to the publication in Environmental Science & Technology

February 2021

EU Chemiclas Strategy for Sustainability: what impact on the legal framework?

On October 14th 2020 the European Commission published its Communication on the “Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment”, one important pillar of the Zero-Pollution Ambition for a Toxic Free Environment as part of the European Green Deal.

Discover the main impacts on the legal framework in our article published on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/eu-chemicals-strategy-sustainability-what-impact-legal-deviller/

December 2020

After a difficult year that puts our strength to the test, DERAC wishes you a Merry Christmas and an Happy New Year 2021 full of health and new projects!

Geneviève Deviller

November 2020

Attending SETAC SciCon2, North America 41st annual meeting?

Do not miss the presentation of Adam Peters from WCA entitled "Urban runoff sources of several trace metals to wastewaters" that will give you the preliminary results of a larger study, in which DERAC participated too, intending to define the proportions of seven metal inputs into WWTP which are attributable to different sources.

 More info at: https://scicon2.setac.org/

September 2020

Emerging risks related to the reuse of water in a circular economy

July/August 2020

A new paper in ESEU explaining how the NORMAN network can contribute to PARC !

The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development in the EU to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment and facilitate the transition to a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge. In this paper, it is explained how the NORMAN network can provide expert advices to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes.

The publication is in open access following this link https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00375-w

June 2020

Our presentation at SETAC Europe 30th Annual Meeting is publicly available!
The oral presentation “Recommendations to derive quality standards for chemical pollutants in reclaimed water intended for reuse in agricultural irrigation” presented by Pr Lian Lundy during the SETAC SciCon virtual meeting hold between the 3-7 May 2020 is now available with its recording on our website. Just click on the image!

April 2020

DERAC at the first fully online conference of SETAC Europe!

The organizing committee of the SETAC Europe 30th Annual Meeting, constrained by the COVID-19 global crisis, as made the tour de force to replace the face-to-face meeting in Dublin by a fully online event!

You shouldn’t miss this opportunity to follow our platform presentation “Recommendations to derive quality standards for chemical pollutants in reclaimed water intended for reuse in agricultural irrigation” presented by Pr Lian Lundy in Session 4.15 – Wastewater and Sludge Reuse in Circular Economy. It will review the existing pertinent EU legislation in terms of identifying the need for Quality Standard for contaminants in reclaimed water and also evaluate opportunities to link in with the existing EU EQS derivation methodology. It will also identify the main research needs and present the most recent activities launched under the NORMAN network for water reuse and policy support.

All presentations will be available on demand at any time and interaction between presenters and participants will be enabled during the meeting session discussion on Wednesday 6 May, 13:45-14:30 UTC.

For more info, please consult the SETAC website: https://dublin.setac.org/

Let’s try together this completely new virtual experience!

March 2020

COVID 19-pandemic

During this exceptional COVID-19 crisis, DERAC canceled all its trips and face-to-face meetings until further notice. DERAC is working remotely and fully mobilized to ensure the continuity of the projects. As of today, we do not anticipate any direct impact on the course of business.

We remain at your disposal for any questions. We wish you lots of courage during this difficult time. We stay united.

 Photo by Fusion Medical Animation

February 2020

New version of QSAR Toolbox (v 4.4) launched with new features!

• New Simplified Toolbox interface to introduce new users to the Toolbox. 
• New Toolbox Repository allowing third-parties to develop their own extensions and make them available to the whole Toolbox community.
• Includes ECHA REACH database and extension for Toolbox and Japan’s KAshinhou Tool for Ecotoxicity (KATE).
• 71 profilers and 16 metabolisms available, including 1 new profiler, 18 updated profilers and 6 updated metabolic simulators.
• 57 databases with 92 134 substances and 2 634 458 data points available, including 7 update databases and 1 updated inventory.
• New automated workflow and custom profiler for Skin sensitisation for Defined Approaches purposes.
• Implementation of the latest EPISUITE model versions.

Download the new version at: https://qsartoolbox.org/download

In addition, tutorials for the QSAR Toolbox are updated, including 3 new tutorials to be consulted at: https://qsartoolbox.org/support/

Photo by Antoine Dautry 

December 2019  

Call of interest to join the NORMAN network on "Water reuse & Policy support"

NORMAN network is a permanent self-sustaining network of reference laboratories, research centres and related organisations that ambition to ensure that knowledge of emerging pollutants is maintained and developed by stimulating coordinated, interdisciplinary projects on problem-oriented research and knowledge transfer to address identified needs. The NORMAN network runs six Working Groups and two Cross-Working Group Activities, dealing with various issues related to emerging substances.

Dr Geneviève Deviller from DERAC and Dr Lian Lundy from Middelsex University and Lulea University of Technology, new leaders of working group 5 on "Water reuse and policy support" would like to invite you to join the group if you are involved in the following activities:

• Occurence of emerging contaminants in reclaimed water including transformation product, nano-micro particulate contaminants and antibiotic resistance determinants.
• Performance of wastewater treatment processes to remove emerging contaminants including natural-based solutions.
• Fate and behaviour of emerging contaminants in soil including uptake by crops and bioaccumulation through terrestrial trophic chains.
• Toxicity of emerging contaminants on soil organisms including mixtures present in reclaimed water.
• Development of human and environmental exposure scenarios for reclaimed water intented for reuse.
• Water quality risk management

If you are interested, please contact us at: genevieve.deviller@derac.eu or l.lundy@mdx.ac.uk

October 2019  

Interested by contaminants risk management in water reused for agricultural irrigation?

Take a look then at our paper that has been published in a special issue of the Chemosphere journal. A free access is guarantee until November 20, 2019 following this link "Recommendations to derive quality standards for chemical pollutants in reclaimed water intended for reuse in agricultural irrigation"

October 2019  

Algae for added value ingredients, biomaterials or waste valorisation?

As a fertile source of new natural products and environmental friendly solutions, algae are seen today as renewable resources with high potential to foster sustainable development of the emerging Blue Bioeconomy in Europe.

The European workshop “Alg’in Provence” (1-2 october, Arles, France) will highlight novel activities on algae valorisation in Europe with a special focus on R&D and industrial initiatives occurring in the French Mediterranean regions.

If you are attending the workshop don't hesitate to visit the exhibition stand of DERAC to discuss how it can support your activity in the field of greener chemistry and bio-based industry.

More info on: http://www.abacus-bbi.eu

August 2019  

Let's meet in Kyoto at the next DIOXIN 2019 symposium!

The Dioxin Conference 2019 will address various issues related to POPs by sharing the latest knowledge and information among internationally-renowned experts.

 DERAC will present the first results of the CARE MED project in a communication entitled "Quality Standards for alkyl_organophosphate ester flame retardants to protect aquatic ecosystems".

More info: http://www.dioxin2019.org/

June 2019 

DERAC has visited the biotech start-ups of the Grand Luminy technopôle in Marseille on 18 June 2019 to present the regulatory context of the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of pharmaceuticals. 

The main objective was to introduce the revised guideline of the European Medicines Agency to assess the risk of human medicines for the environment (under public consultation until 30 June 2019). 

The revision of EMA’s guideline on ERA provides more detailed technical guidance to applicants to increase the consistency of the assessments with other pieces of chemicals legislation (e.g. REACH, WFD). In particular, it clarifies the assessment of ‘endocrine active substances’, that affect development or reproduction and of 'PBT substances' providing guidance for the estimation of the exposure of predators to pharmaceuticals through the food chain (‘secondary poisoning’).

More info on: European Medicines Agency website

DERAC is at your disposal to answer your questions. Contact us: https://www.derac.eu/home

April 2019 

DERAC has joined the Pôle Mer Méditerrannée, a French cluster aiming to develop products and services for sustainable management of the coastline and the marine environment in the Mediterranean, Europe and the rest of the world.

DERAC is particularly interested to participate to prevention of environmental risks, environmental quality monitoring and design of sustainable coastal development.

More info at: https://en.polemermediterranee.com/Activites-Projets/Marine-environment-and-coastal-planning

February 2019

ECHA has published its annual evaluation report on REACH compliance: in the majority of registration dossiers, important safety information is missing and the agency annonced that compliance check will be an Agency priority with a greater focus this year. 

The Agency provides also some recommendations to the registrants and DERAC has a considerable experience in addressing some of them, for exemple: 

- For all aquatic studies, always provide a reliable analytical monitoring of exposure concentrations and if required, follow the specific requirements applicable to difficult to test substances including mixtures.

- Identify degradation products (metabolites), generally obtained from simulation tests for water, sediment, soil and STP, and report them accordingly.  

- For the PBT/vPvB assessment, consider also each relevant degradation/transformation product and constituent/impurity/additive present in concentration at or above 0.1% (w/w) or, if not technically feasible, in concentrations as low as technically quantifiable.  Alternatively, provide a justification for why these are not relevant.

More info at ECHA website

If your registration dossier is not compliant with ECHA's recommandations and you need to improve the environmental risk assessment of your substance, don't hesitate to contact DERAC that will help you to pass your dossier compliance check and future evaluation!

December 2018

DERAC will participate to the Technical Day "Challenges of Emerging Pollutants in the Land-Sea Continuum in the Mediterranean" organized on the 11th of December 2018 in Marseille by the Mediterranean Sea Cluster, the Aqua-Valley Cluster, the Éa eco-companies Cluster and the Aix-Marseille University.

Geneviève Deviller will make a presentation on the "Environmental Quality Standards to assess the risks associated with organophosphorus esters in the Gulf of Lion" under the CARE MED project.

 More infos: www.polemediterrannée.com and CARE MED project

October 2018

DERAC is proud to announce that Dr Geneviève Deviller has been recently graduated a Master in Business Creation by the Economy and Management University of Aix-Marseille. 

These new skills will support DERAC's clients guaranteeing a faithful and transparent management of their projects and providing them support in the development of innovation.

September 2018

DERAC will attend the next XENOWAC II international conference on "Challenges and Solutions related to Xenobiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Framework of Urban WasteWater Reuse: Towards a Blue Circle Society", which will take place on 10-12 October 2018 in Limassol (Cyprus).

Dr Geneviève Deviller will be involved as a panelist during the round table discussion, entitled “The big unknowns concerning a safe and sustainable wastewater reuse”.

The Conference embraces ­the work performed in t­he framework of NEREUS COST Act­ion ES1403 and H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/675530 ANSWER, bot­h coordina­ted by Nireas-IWRC.

More info at http://www.xenowac2018.com/

July 2018

DERAC is involved in the CAREMED project on Potential Risks of Anthropogenic Contaminants on the French Mediterranean coast

The two years project CAREMED, coordinated by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography of Marseille and funded by the French Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency, gathers a multidisciplinary team involving scientists from academic and private institutions.

The overall objective of CAREMED is to provide insight on the environmental concentrations, main sources and fluxes of chemical contaminants of current and emerging concern, like plastic organic additives and related compounds, in different coastal compartments (water, sediments, and marine organisms) of the North-Western Mediterranean Sea.

The investigation of their transfer in Mediterranean food webs as well as their potential risks to marine organisms and human health are key objectives of this project too.

Dr Geneviève Deviller is specifically in charge of deriving Environmental Quality Standards for the selected contaminants and providing a local assessment of the risks for the pelagic, benthic and top predators communities as well as for humans consuming fishery products from the area.

This study should contribute to define an ecological status of NW Mediterranean coastal ecosystems and to identify action objectives for its improvement.

To be updated on the project, please follow this link: https://www.researchgate.net/projectCAREMED

May 2018

DERAC at SETAC Europe in May 2018!

Geneviève Deviller will participate to the annual SETAC Europe conference, which will took place in Rome this year.

She will give a poster presentation on the challenges represented by testing mixtures. Indeed, the available standard methodologies to assess the environmental fate and toxicity have been developed for single substances and are often not directly applicable to mixtures. Issues related to the identification of the relevant constituents to monitor, to the analytical technical challenges and to the  derivation of the effect concentrations (e.g. ECx or NOEC) in case the constituents have different degradation patterns will be discussed and illustrated by case studies.

The poster entitled "Testing chemical mixtures: how to determine the effects concentration(s)?" will be presented during the session "Hazard and exposure assessment of chemical mixtures: steps towards increasing the realism of chemical risk assessment" in the exhibition hall on Thursday May 17th, 2018 (ID: TH281).

Download poster

The five-day event will covered many other important topics on the overarching theme “Responsible and Innovative Research for Environmental Quality”.

For more info: https://rome.setac.org/

February 2018 

DERAC has joined the NEREUS COST Action ES 1403 addressing new and emerging challenges and opportunities in wastewater reuse.

The ever-increasing shortage of water, the increasing needs for food security of the expanding world population, the increasing demand for irrigation water both in respect to good quality and quantity, renders the reuse a 'sine qua non' condition. Currently, sustainable and safe urban water cycles have a high priority on the policy agenda of many EU Member States and elsewhere.

The overall benefit of this COST Action is that it will provide the platform for a systematic consolidation of data and standardization of methods for assessing emerging hazards associated with reuse.

More specifically, Dr Geneviève Deviller will be involved in the Working groups 2 and 5 related to the biomagnifications processes of microcontaminants in crops and associated environmental/human health impacts and to the development of a risk assessment framework for wastewater reuse purposes.

For more info: http://www.nereus-cost.eu/