BEQUALM Summary Report
Background
Biological effects measurements are increasingly being incorporated into national and international environmental monitoring programmes to supplement chemical measurements. The Biological Effects Quality Assurance in Monitoring Programmes (BEQUALM) project, funded by the European Union through the Standards, Measurements and Testing programme of the European Commission, was initiated in 1998. This was in direct response to the requirements of OSPAR to establish a European infrastructure for biological effects QA/QC, in order that laboratories contributing to national and international marine monitoring programmes can attain defined quality standards.
Objectives
The main objectives of the project were to develop appropriate reference materials or type collections, to develop an infrastructure for assessing the comparability of data from individual laboratories and to demonstrate that biological effects analyses are under statistical control and are of known quality. The ultimate aims were to produce an agreed set of protocols for biological methods used in marine monitoring, a conformity on acceptable limits of variation, a system for monitoring the output of Participating Laboratories and assessing their compliance with appropriate quality standards, and to develop a QA system which is self-financing on the basis of fees recovered from participants.
Work Programme
Nine project partners, experts in particular biological effects monitoring techniques, organised a series of intercalibration exercises and training workshops to develop the QA infrastructure. The workpackages organised were: water and sediment bioassays, metallothionein measurement, ALA-D activity, DNA adduct measurement, P4501A activity, imposex/intersex measurement, lysosomal stability, liver histopathology and external disease measurement, chlorophyll-a and phytoplankton assemblage analysis and benthic community analysis.
Results and Achievements
The results indicated that many of the techniques can be considered robust enough to be used more widely in monitoring programmes such as the JAMP and CEMP. Exceptions are ALA-D and lysosomal stability, where uptake and use of the techniques was too small for proper evaluation. Although EROD is a widely used technique and good protocols are available, systematic errors are still occurring, particularly in less-experienced laboratories; more training and intercalibration is required. A set of training manuals in CD-ROM format have been produced which contain all the key stages of the methods, with special emphasis on those aspects of the procedures where specific skills or knowledge are needed. A model for a self-funded QA scheme has been implemented, which reflects the variety of functions required by participants in different fields i.e. biomarker measurements, whole organism effects and community analyses.