wca participated in the SciCON SETAC’s 30th Annual European meeting between May the 3rd and 7th of May 2020. We were involved with presentations and posters on metals on the development of Multiple Linear Regression models to account for nickel bioavailability in Australian freshwaters, performing ERA for nickel in the tropics, deriving national bioavailability-based specific pollutant EQS, the target and the validation of simplified tools for implementing EQSs.

In my previous blog on how wca are coping with the Covid-19 outbreak, I promised further blog updates as the situation developed.

At this difficult and testing time for everyone, I thought it might be useful to highlight the arrangements that wca are putting in place to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.

ECHA has recently published a report based on a project conducted by wca at the end of last year. Working in collaboration with ECHA, Ed and Olivia carried out market research to estimate the number of applications for 11 substances of very high concern (SVHCs) that the European Commission added to the Authorisation List in February 2020.

ECHA’s concerns that companies are not keeping their REACH registrations up to date has led to the drafting of an Implementing Regulation, setting out a deadline of 3 months for submitting administrative updates, and deadlines of 6 or 12 months for updates which are considered more complex and require generating new data or changes in the safety assessment.

At the end of 2019 Ed attended a conference on Current Issues in Contaminated Land hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment (SoBRA).

At the start of a new year, and a new decade, it is a time for reflecting on the past and looking to the future. As we return at the start of 2020, both Becky and Rhiannon are celebrating having been at wca for 10 years.