The release of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to the environment necessitates an assessment of their environmental risks. The currently available environmental risk assessments (ERA) for ENMs are based on an analysis of the total flows of a specific ENM to the environment and on ecotoxicity studies performed with pristine ENMs. It is known that ENMs undergo transformation during product use and release and in technical systems such as wastewater treatment. The aim of the present study was therefore to perform an ERA of 3 ENMs (nano-Ag, nano-TiO₂, and nano-ZnO) based on a form-specific release model and a form-specific analysis of ecotoxicological data. Predicted environmental concentration values were derived using a form-specific material flow model. Species sensitivity distributions were used to derive predicted-no-effect concentrations (PNECs) for the pristine ENMs and for dissolved and transformed Ag and ZnO. For all ENMs, the matrix-embedded form was included in the assessment. A probabilistic assessment was applied, yielding final probability distributions for the risk characterization ratio (RCR). For nano-Ag, the form-specific assessment resulted in a decrease of the mean RCR from 0.061 for the approach neglecting the different release forms to 0.034 because of the much lower PNEC of transformed Ag. Likewise, for nano-ZnO, the form-specific approach reduced the mean RCR from 1.2 to 0.86. For nano-TiO₂, the form-specific assessment did not change the mean RCR of 0.026. This analysis shows that a form-specific approach can have an influence on the assessment of the environmental risks of ENMs and that, given the availability of form-specific release models, an updated ERA for ENMs can be performed. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:2629–2639. © 2021 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

中文翻译：

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欧洲淡水中 3 种工程纳米材料（纳米银、纳米二氧化钛和纳米氧化锌）的特定形式和概率环境风险评估


工程纳米材料 (ENM) 向环境中的释放需要对其环境风险进行评估。目前可用的 ENM 环境风险评估 (ERA) 基于对特定 ENM 进入环境的总流量的分析以及对原始 ENM 进行的生态毒性研究。众所周知，ENM 在产品使用和释放过程中以及在废水处理等技术系统中会发生转变。因此，本研究的目的是基于特定形式的释放模型和生态毒理学数据的特定形式分析，对 3 种 ENM（纳米银、纳米 TiO ₂和纳米 ZnO）进行 ERA。预测的环境浓度值是使用特定形式的物质流模型得出的。物种敏感性分布用于推导原始 ENM 以及溶解和转化的 Ag 和 ZnO 的预测无效应浓度 (PNEC)。对于所有 ENM，评估中均包含矩阵嵌入形式。应用概率评估，得出风险特征比率 (RCR) 的最终概率分布。对于纳米银，形式特异性评估导致平均 RCR 从忽略不同释放形式的方法的 0.061 降至 0.034，因为转化银的 PNEC 低得多。同样，对于纳米 ZnO，特定形状的方法将平均 RCR 从 1.2 降低到 0.86。对于纳米TiO ₂ ，​​特定形式的评估没有改变0.026的平均RCR。该分析表明，特定形式的方法可以对 ENM 环境风险的评估产生影响，并且鉴于特定形式的释放模型的可用性，可以对 ENM 进行更新的 ERA。 环境毒理学2021；40：2629–2639。 © 2021 作者。 《环境毒理学和化学》由 Wiley periodicals LLC 代表 SETAC 出版。