Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt), Berlin, Germany (UBA), Department for Drinking-water Hygiene
The Federal Environmental Agency of Germany functions as an interface between science and research on one hand, and the development of regulations and policy on the other. The working-group co-ordinating PEPCY has long-standing expertise in research on biogenic substances in water, first with algal taste-and-odour compounds and since the early 1990's with cyanobacterial toxins. Areas of research include a large multi-partner screening program on the occurrence of microcystins, anatoxin-a and saxitoxins in Germany as basis for estimating human exposure risk, development of analytical methods for microcystins and cylindrospermopsin, toxicity testing of cyanobacterial crude extracts and toxins, laboratory investigation of the impact of environmental factors on cellular toxin content, and research on cyanotoxin elimination in drinking-water treatment. Areas of regulatory work and policy development include guidelines for recreational safety with respect to cyanobacterial exposure on the national, EU and WHO level as well as guidelines for drinking-water safety.
UBA's roles in PEPCY are to co-ordinate the consortium and to lead Workpackage 5, which develops adequate hazard characterisation approaches for cyanopeptides, including those with low-level impact. UBA further contributes to Workpackage 2 with field and laboratory work analysing genotype/chemotype occurrence in water samples from Germany and to Workpackage 4 with toxicity assays (mutation, genotoxicity and immune function assays). In this context UBA is establishing a data base on occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins as well as reported symptoms after exposure and different countries' regulatory and policy approaches to this hazard. For this purpose, UBA establishes contacts to national public and environmental health authorities and organises a hazard characterisation and risk management conference towards the end of the project.
Dr. Ingrid Chorus, Project coodinator
Dr. Jutta Fastner, Dr. Tamara Grummt, Dr. Rita Heinze, Dr. Verena Niesel, Gabriele Wessel, Ana-Helena Ferreira-Ferreira
Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt)
Division Environmental Health, Water, Soil, Air Hygiene and Ecology
Dept. of Drinking-water Hygiene (FG II 4.3)
PO Box 330022
14191 Berlin
GermanyPhone: +49-30-89031346
Fax: +49-30-89031830Web-site: www.umweltbundesamt.de