Bio: Adam is the Head of Research department for Ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment. He is also NIVA’s Test Facility Manager for Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and has been project managing and study directing regulatory ecotoxicity tests according to GLP for over 20 years. Adam is a EUROTOX Registered Toxicologist (ERT) and is involved in numerous international committees and expert working groups. Adam is the Norwegian representative at the OECD validation management group for ecotoxicity test methods (VMGEco) and the Norwegian representative for ISO Water Quality test standards for biological methods. Adam has been very active in the field of animal alternatives for ecotoxicity testing, chairing many sessions at SETAC and currently chairs the SETAC global animal alternatives interest group. Adam has a thorough understanding of the regulatory complexities regarding the adoption of alternative test methods and the need for a weight of evidence approach to gain regulatory acceptance. Adams main interests involve understanding how chemicals are regulated within an environmental context, and how to influence policy making decisions for regulatory frameworks.

Abstract: Nearly 20 years ago, the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) established a task force to review the current state of the science for alternative approaches for environmental hazard and risk assessment, particularly related to fish. The ECETOC review identified several different initiatives for reducing, refining and replacing the fish acute toxicity test and recommended research to be focused on developing in vitro test systems using fish cell lines and fish embryo toxicity testing. Subsequently, after several research initiatives and intense inter laboratory ring trials, two test guidelines were submitted and validated at the OECD resulting in the Fish Embryo Toxicity (FET) test (OECD 236) and the Rainbow trout cytotoxicity assay (RT-gill W1, OECD 249). However, to date neither test has been approved as a 1 to 1 replacement for the Acute Fish Toxicity (AFT) assay but can be used in a weight of evidence approach and assuming sufficient confidence in the data can be achieved. Some Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSARs) have been shown to accurately predict the toxicity of fish for certain groups of compounds. In addition, sublethal endpoints (e.g. heart rate or swimming behaviour) may also provide mechanistic information for predicting fish toxicity.