Environmental Fate Testing of Challenging Substances

On 28 May 2025, ibacon GmbH, LabAnalysis Life Science, and Vali Consulting hosted a joint webinar titled: 
"Environmental Fate Testing of Challenging Substances – From Practice to Perspective" 

With great interest from industry professionals, consultants, and regulatory authorities, the session provided valuable insights into how to manage environmental fate testing when substances don’t fit neatly into standard guideline frameworks. 

Key topics included: 

• Testing strategies for non-guideline substances 
  Standard test guidelines often cannot adequately adress substances with properties such as high volatility, strong adsorption, or low water solubility. In these cases, ibacon applies customized experimental designs and scientifically justified adaptations to ensure regulatory-compliant and meaningful data. 
• Practical application of FOCUS Surface Water scenarios 
  When applying FOCUS Surface Water scenarios, it's critical to match model assumptions with the physicochemical behavior of the substance under realistic use conditions. The webinar highlighted how specific degradation, sorption and volatility profiles must be considered to produce robust exposure assessments and looked at what the future may hold in FOCUS SW repair. 
• Real-world case studies from regulatory testing 
  Three detailed case studies—focused on volatilization, vessel adsorption, and low solubility—demonstrated how standard OECD tests (309, 111, 106) were adapted for difficult substances. In each case, the approach was either accepted by regulatory authorities or led to justified use of default risk assessment parameters. 
• Approaches to evaluating complex compound properties 
  Complex substances challenge the assumptions of standardized test protocols and may require tailored kinetic models, special test vessels, or modified sampling strategies. The webinar showed how analytical adjustments and validation steps can ensure scientifically credible results even when standard criteria are not met. 

A sincere thank-you to all attendees and our expert partners and co-presenters for the engaging discussion and knowledge-sharing! 

Missed the live session? 
You can now download the full presentation (PDF) here: 
 

For questions or tailored support with your environmental fate testing needs, feel free to reach out — our team is happy to help.