Foreword

Abstract

This volume of collected papers represents a valuable and timely extension of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) to aquatic ecosystems. QSAR is a fundamental concept in the development of pharmaceutical drugs and toxic organic chemicals (biocides) used in agriculture, in forestry, and for general pest control. The proliferation of organic biocides which have been produced and which continue to be developed at a rate of some 600 per annum, and of industrial chemicals which have been disposed of in waste dumps in the past and are now being detected in many waterways, predicates an urgent need for the ability to predict biological activity of organic chemicals by means other than classical toxicology. QSAR allows researchers to make such predictions of the biological acitivity of organic chemicals and their degradation products. Intermediate steps in environmental QSAR, such as relating chemical structure to degradation or bioaccumulation, are ways to more rapidly estimate expected toxicity, and to assist in the selection of compounds for which long-term testing may still be needed. Another potential use of QSAR is the prediction of synergistic and antagonistic effects, a major obstacle to real environmental risk assessment.