Online course and webinars on 'The Future of Environmental and Human Health Exposure Modelling of Chemicals'

These online courses and webinars aim to help familiarise yourself with the new MERLIN-Expo tool. MERLIN-Expo enables robust, regulatory-relevant environmental fate and exposure assessments to be performed with ease and transparency by anyone. The online course, which is still active, and the webinars organised by the MERLIN-Expo team have resulted to be successful.
Currently, exposure assessment is often recognised as a weak point in ecological and human health risk assessment, due to either a lack of integrated approaches for combined stressors, the widespread use of over-conservative ‘worst-case’ scenarios, the estimation of external exposures but not internal ones, or the lack of identification of key exposure drivers. Advanced features in MERLIN-Expo such as uncertainty and sensitivity analysis as well as pharmacokinetic considerations put this tool at the forefront of regulatory science and the users can range from people working in a consultancy or regulatory body to research specialists interested in higher tier modelling.

Together with the online course hosted on the OpenTEA platform (http://www.opentea.eu/en/e-learning/courses-The-Future-of-Environmental-...), the MERLIN-Expo team is proposing a series of 6 webinars, with the aim to support users and potential users to understand the tool and to get the most out of it.

The webinars have presented the tool and case studies to showcase its main features. One of the strengths of MERLIN-Expo is the ability to link different models. This means that the outputs from one model can be used as inputs for another model. When you have mastered the skill of linking models, you can create your own scenario as complex as you choose. Participants have been guided to learn how to link models together within MERLIN-Expo interface using a realistic case study. Specific focus was also given to case studies concerning bioaccumulation of persistent pollutants in an aquatic food web including aquatic invertebrates and fish species, historical soil pollution with industrial heavy-metal waste causing health concerns for the local population. Potential regulatory frameworks in which MERLIN-Expo can be used were also explored and highlighted through a comparison with other (multimedia) environmental exposure tools.

The 6th webinar will take place on 6th June 2016. For additional information, and to watch the past webinars, please visit: http://www.opentea.eu/en/e-learning/courses-The-Future-of-Environmental-...

MERLIN-Expo is free and can be downloaded at merlin-expo.eu

Related link: cordis.europa.eu