TEXTE 63/2012 Current approaches to Cyanotoxin risk assess- ment, risk management and regulations in different countries | TEXTE | 63/2012 Current approaches to Cyanotoxin risk assessment, risk management and regulations in different countries compiled and edited by Dr. Ingrid Chorus Federal Environment Agency, Germany UMWELTBUNDESAMT This publication is only available online. It can be downloaded from http://www.uba.de/uba-info-medien-e/4390.html. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions. ISSN 1862-4804 Publisher: Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) Wörlitzer Platz 1 06844 Dessau-Roßlau Germany Phone: +49-340-2103-0 Fax: +49-340-2103 2285 Email: [email protected] Internet: http://www.umweltbundesamt.de http://fuer-mensch-und-umwelt.de/ Edited by: Section II Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water Hygiene Dr. Ingrid Chorus Dessau-Roßlau, December 2012 Current approaches to Cyanotoxin risk assessment, risk management and regulations in different countries Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 2 ARGENTINA: Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins: Identification, Toxicology, Monitoring and Risk Assessment .................................................................................................... 16 AUSTRALIA: Guidelines, Legislation and Management Frameworks .......................... 21 CANADA: Cyanobacterial Toxins: Drinking and Recreational Water Quality Guidelines...................................................................................................................... 29 CUBA: Toxic cyanobacteria risk assessment, research and management ................... 40 DENMARK: Occurence, Monitoring, and Management of Cyanobacteria and their Toxins in Danish Water Bodies ...................................................................................... 49 FINLAND: Guidelines for monitoring of cyanobacteria and their toxins ........................ 54 FRANCE: Regulation, Risk Management, Risk Assessment and Research on Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins .................................................................................... 63 GREECE: Occurrence, Monitoring and Risk Management of Cyano-bacteria and Cyanotoxins ................................................................................................................... 71 ITALY: Management of Potenially Toxic Cyanobacteria ............................................... 79 NETHERLANDS: Risks of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in recreational waters and guidelines ...................................................................................................................... 82 NEW ZEALAND: Regulation and Management of Cyanobacteria ................................ 97 POLAND: Management and Regulation of Toxic Cyanobacteria ................................ 109 SINGAPORE: Occurrence, Monitoring and Management of Cyanobacterial blooms .. 115 SPAIN: Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins – Legislation and Current Situation ............. 118 TURKEY: Occurence of Toxic Cyanobacteria and Guidelines for Mo-nitoring Cyanotoxins in Drinking and Recreational Waters ....................................................... 127 URUGUAY: Occurrence, Toxicity and Regulation of Cyanobacteria ........................... 130 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Historical Review and Current Policy Addressing Cyanobacteria ............................................................................................................. 137 1 Current approaches to Cyanotoxin risk assessment, risk management and regulations in different countries INTRODUCTION Ingrid Chorus1 1 Federal Environment Agency, Germany; [email protected] The VIIIth International Conference on Toxic Cyanobacteria (ICTC), held in September 2010 Istanbul, Turkey, included a session in which scientists and regulators reported approaches to controlling hazards from toxic cyanobacteria implemented or discussed in their country, as well as awareness of the issue. Presentations demonstrated substantial recent progress in the per- ception of cyanotoxins as risk to human health and in risk management, particularly when com- paring the current status of regulatory approaches to that reported six years earlier at the VIth ICTC in Bergen, Norway. Again, differences and similarities between countries in the approach- es to managing this risk proved very much worth sharing, and it became clear that the booklet of regulatory approaches compiled after the Bergen conference should be updated, particularly with contributions from countries who have implemented regulatory approaches since then. This booklet therefore compiles the responses to a post-conference call mailed to all partici- pants asking for updates or new contributions. Although the contributions included span a wide range of regulatory approaches to cyanotoxins, coverage is neither globally balanced nor com- prehensive. Also, contributions do not represent authorized government positions, but rather the personal views of the authors, the majority of which are scientists. Overall, the progress in regulatory approaches to the assessment and management of cyano- toxin risks illustrates how research results can effectively feed into policy development, particu- larly where scientists invest time and energy in making their results useful for that purpose. It is therefore hoped that this compilation will again be useful as trigger and as support for national discussions on assessing health hazards from cyanotoxins and on the best management ap- proaches to protect human health from this hazard. Contributions in this booklet are organised alphabetically by country. In some countries, regula- tions have changed little since the publication of the first edition of this booklet in 2005, and readers are referred to that for information on the approaches in Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary and South Africa as well as to Tables 1 and 2 below for updates of detail. The 2005 edition remains available on the web under: http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/wasser-und-gewaesserschutz/cyanocenter.htm. Tables 1 and 2 give an overview of how cyanotoxins are regulated in drinking-water and in wa- ter used for recreational activities in the countries covered in the following chapters or in the first edition. They indicate whether or not a risk management framework is in place, which parame- ters are used for assessing situations and which values guide responses to blooms. Whether or not countries implement a legally binding standard or rather some type of guidance value usually relates to central versus federal structures: where the legislative power for surveil- lance is with state governments, the central national level sometimes cannot issue standards but can recommend guideline values. Also, ‘names for numbers’ vary: across the countries covered in this booklet, besides ‘guideline values’ or ‘standards’ they include ‘maximum accept- able values’, ‘maximum acceptable concentrations’ and ‘health alert levels’, sometimes explicitly designated as ‘provisional’ just like the WHO Guideline-value for Microcystin-LR. While these 2 Current approaches to Cyanotoxin risk assessment, risk management and regulations in different countries differences in terminology reflect different legal situations and regulatory cultures, the underlying scientific considerations are very similar. For the purpose of orientation when planning regulato- ry approaches, their comparison is therefore worthwhile. The role of risk management frameworks for regulating the safety of drinking-water as well as recreational use of water-bodies is increasing in many countries. Typically, risk management frameworks assess the likelihood for potentially hazardous concentrations to occur as well as the efficacy of the measures already in place or of those which could be implemented to control them. In face of the rapid shifts in cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxin concentrations, risk management frameworks are a highly appropriate approach particularly for this hazard. For drinking-water, those currently implemented follow the concept of developing site-specific Water Safety Plans as proposed by WHO (2004), or similar concepts. For recreational water-body use, the European Union Bathing Water Directive1 requires the establishment of a ‘bathing water profile’, i.e. the assessment of the potential for contamination. While it emphases microbial con- tamination, it also explicitly addresses cyanobacterial blooms and their causes, and countries on other continents follow similar approaches. Risk management frameworks may trigger the assessment and improved management of the causes for cyanobacterial blooms (primarily nu- trient loading and sometimes also flow regime management), and they may interface effectively with environmental policy addressing the reduction of eutrophication (e.g. in the European Un- ion with the local implementation of the Water Framework Directive). Particularly in the context of risk management frameworks, some countries use parameters re- flecting the concentration of cyanobacterial biomass, i.e. cell numbers, biovolumes or pigment concentrations (e.g. chlorophyll-a attributable to cyanobacteria or a specific cyanobacterial pig- ment detected by fluorometry), with specific values set to guide responses (such as intensified monitoring) or interventions (e.g. upgrading drinking-water treatment or banning recreational site use). Using biomass parameters