New Approach Methodologies in Environmental Risk Assessment of Chemical Contaminants
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecotoxicology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 21 November 2025 | Viewed by 41
Special Issue Editor
Interests: analytical chemistry; aquatic toxicology; environmental risk assessment; toxicogenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The impacts of environmentally relevant concentrations of chemicals and their mixtures on biological systems are challenging to assess. Many current approaches to assessing pollution focus on detecting chemicals and pollutants in the environment, as well as the abundance and diversity of fauna and flora, to inform water quality standards. Such approaches are weak in providing links between specific pollutants and their possible mechanisms of action and ecological effects, failing to produce diagnostic insight concerning the type of stressor or predict future impacts before ecological damage becomes precarious. These limitations shifted ecotoxicology towards New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which provide new metrics for pollution assessment using in vitro cell-based assays, in silico approaches, organisms that comply with non-animal ethical constraints, and omic technologies. NAMs aim to provide mechanistic insights into chemical toxicity, enhance predictive risk assessments, and align with the principles of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal testing). Regulatory bodies such as the OECD, EPA, and ECHA are increasingly incorporating NAMs into their decision-making frameworks to improve chemical safety assessments. This Special Issue welcomes submissions that highlight mechanistic toxicological studies using in silico, in vitro, and whole-organism responses in accordance with the 3Rs, as well as high-throughput screening methods such as omics and behavioral assays, and the application of NAMs to regulatory bodies.
Dr. Carlos Barata
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- approaches for pollution assessment
- ecotoxicology
- ecological effects
- new approach methodologies
- chemical toxicity
- chemical contaminants
- risk assessment
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