Abstract
Using the European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances (EUSES) and the Geography-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers (GREAT-ER) regional exposure assessments were performed for the polycyclic musk fragrance HHCB (1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethyl-cyclopenta-[g]-2-benzopyrane; trade name: e.g. Galaxolide®), Starting with a generic standard region a spatial refinement was carried out for the German River Ruhr region. The refinement was realised in different scenarios by successively replacing EUSES default parameters with realistic regional values and then applying the selected region to GREAT-ER. The results were compared to monitoring data from the region of North Rhine-Westphalia (River Ruhr). It was shown that EUSES estimates the median of the measured values very well in every scenario. Spatial refinement leads to lower concentrations. Even underestimations are possible if realistic regional parameters are inserted and a ready biodegradability is assumed. The lowest deviations to measured values are the average concentrations calculated by GREAT-ER, however, much more data are needed to perform a reasonable regional assessment. Furthermore, assuming the same region, the predicted concentrations of EUSES and GREAT-ER do not differ by more than a factor of 5. In addition, GREAT-ER delivers realistic regional information with visualised concentration profiles and maps.
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