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Chemicals designated in 2001 (and listed with EQS in 2008) as priority substances represent those recognised for a long time as being harmful to or via the aquatic environment. They are a small subset of the thousands of chemicals in daily use and in many cases restrictions have been in place for decades. More recent concerns, for example newly-identified harmful substances or issues such as toxicity of mixtures of chemicals, are not reflected in the list of priority substances relevant for the second RBMP reporting. However, some indication of the on-going challenge for chemicals is provided by reporting of certain countries which applied the new and revised standards under the Priority Substances Directive. These standards, which should be met in 2021, were applied by e.g. Sweden, where the revised biota standard for brominated diphenylethers (flame retardardants) was failed in all waterbodies; and Luxembourg, where the revised standard for fluoranthene (a PAH) was failed in all surface waterbodies.

[1] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-dangersub/pri_substances.htm

[2] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:226:0001:0017:EN:PDF

[3] Definition of ”ubiquitous” - present, appearing, or found everywhere

[4] Benzo(a)pyrene , benzo(g,h,i)perylene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, benzo(b)fluor-anthene and benzo(k)fluor-anthene