Joanke van Dijk

SSBD Basel 2024 Speakers - Joanke van Dijk

Joanke is a postdoctoral researcher at Empa in Switzerland, where she works on the concept of ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design’ within the Partnership for the Assessment of Risks of Chemicals (PARC) and supports the development of a toolbox to be used by small and medium-sized enterprises in order to assess the safety and sustainability profile of chemicals and materials. She holds a MSc degree in environmental sciences from Wageningen University, and a PhD degree from Utrecht University. In her PhD thesis she assed different management options that can help to reduce chemical pollution and achieve a so-called toxic-free environment, covering different phases of the chemical life-cycle as part of the Ecorisk2050 project. Previously, she also gained experience in the risk assessment of chemicals at the Dutch federal institute for health and environment (RIVM) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

PARC SSbD Case Study

The European Commission has introduced a framework for Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD). In our work, part of the PARC project (https://www.eu-parc.eu/), we evaluated a wide range of predictive modeling tools. Our case study focused on bisphenol A (BPA) in two applications—polycarbonate bottles and epoxy coatings—along with two alternative chemicals, BPAP and isosorbide. The primary objective was to assess the performance of these tools rather than to identify viable alternatives for these specific use cases. Only the chemical names, structures (CAS numbers), and intended applications were provided, and tool testers were asked to highlight any challenges they encountered. This approach aimed to evaluate the applicability of these tools in the early stages of innovation.

Our preliminary findings reveal that tools designed for the same purpose often align but sometimes produce differing results, even when assessing the same endpoint or indicator. These differences are mainly due to variations in methodological and technological approaches rather than inherent disparities in the tools themselves. SSbD has significant potential to drive innovation. While predictive models are available and necessary for all steps of the process, qualitative expert judgment, semi-quantitative models, and computational tools all have crucial roles to play in achieving comprehensive, effective SSbD outcomes. During this talk, findings of the case study and implications for SSbD assessments are presented.