ICES Marine Chemistry Working Group (MCWG) and Working Group for Marine Sediments
in relation to pollution (WGMS) have decided to merge their expertise into one
expert group. This decision was made at their joint meeting that took place in March
2020. Both groups share a lot of interests - as reflected in the aligned terms
of reference (ToR) over the past two years – and while WGMS has a strong focus
on contaminants in relation to sediment, the group originates from MCWG.
Chairs and members of MCWG and WGMS agreed that merging both groups make sense at the current time and Claire Mason, Cefas and WGMS co-chair, notes that “working together helps us with many of our interests overlapping, including CECs for example”.
Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are one of main joint tasks for the groups (MCWG ToR a and WGMS ToR e). The increase in CECs is a major environmental issue,
with OSPAR, Baltic Marine Environment Protection
Commission (HELCOM), the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Network of reference laboratories, research centres and related organisations
for monitoring of emerging environmental substances (NORMAN) all invested in better understanding
the diversity and extent of CECs in the marine environment.
There have been
many studies carried out in recent years in relation to CEC distribution in the
marine environment but the majority of them correspond to local areas or
specific coastal ecosystems. To identify which CECs should be considered in
future monitoring programs at regional or sub-regional level, there should be a
more complete view of the available information about the occurrence and
distribution of the most common CECs in the European marine environment.
MCWG and WGMS are gathering recent data on the occurrence of CECs, with the goal of assisting in
the selection of hazardous substances
of concern to be further considered by OSPAR and, potentially, the EU Water Framework Directive/Marine Strategy Framework Directive for inclusion in priority list of substances. A list of contaminant
families to be investigated was presented in the 2017 ICES Advice, “OSPAR request on
information for use in selecting and deselecting hazardous substances of concern”.
MCWG and WGMS members have nominated coordinators for most EU coastal countries to gather
information and co-author a review publication. The groups have tried to cover
as wide an area as possible as the collaboration of researchers from different
countries is crucial and any data contributions will be cited in this review.
Each coordinator
will use a bespoke template to collect data from their national scientific
network, referencing the different CEC families considered (pharmaceuticals,
personal-care products, flame retardants, PFASs, etc), including general
information about the sampling area, the frequency of detection in the study,
the concentration range, the project, and the bibliographic reference.
These data will
be presented and discussed at the final joint meeting of MCWG/WGMS, scheduled
from 1–5 March 2021 in Ghent, Belgium. If you are interested in contributing to this work, contact Víctor M. León or Cathérine
Munschy.