ABSTRACT
Within the field of environmental toxicology we are often placed in a situation of having to predict the probability of exposure (i.e. risk) to environmental chemicals from a very limited scientific database. After the release of a chemical into the environment we often know little of its fate and behaviour in the different compartments of the environment (e.g. air, soil/sediment, water, biota). We know even less about the transformation or detoxification processes involved in the vast majority of chemicals in the environment,
although an extensive body of literature exists on the fate and behaviour of extensively studied chemicals such as DDT, tri-organotins and some organochlorines.
