S. Gheorghe et. al.: Anthropogenic pollutants: 10 years of progress in ecotoxicological studies and aquatic risk assessment Romanian Journal of Ecology & Environmental Chemistry ● No.1 ● 2019 www.incdecoind.ro 26 Anthropogenic pollutants: 10 years of progress in ecotoxicological studies and aquatic risk assessment STEFANIA GHEORGHE 1, # , IRINA LUCACIU 1 , IULIANA PAUN 1 , GABRIELA GEANINA VASILE 1 , JANA PETRE 1 , VASILE ION IANCU 1 , CATALINA STOICA 1 , DANIEL MITRU 1,2 , MIHAI NITA-LAZAR 1 1 National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology ECOIND Bucharest, 71-73 Drumul Podul Dambovitei, 060652, Bucharest, Romania 2 The Polytechnic University of Bucharest - Faculty of Chemistry Engineering # corresponding author (e-mail): stefania.gheorghe@incdecoind.ro The market expansion due to globalization generated more anthropogenic contaminants, enhancing their negative impact on the environment. In order to prevent and balanced their negative effect, more rapid, sensitive and eco-friendly ecotoxicological studies as risk assessments were developed. Each country developed national programs to ensure the research infrastructure for implementation and development of new testing methodologies, generating new experimental data transferable to governmental authorities, economic agents and academia. In this review, we intend to highlighted the progress of Romanian researchers in the last 10 years in the field of ecotoxicology and aquatic risk assessment. The studies focused on aquatic systems as a non-targeted system to the anthropogenic pollutants impact. The implemented methodologies according with international requirements for chemical control like REACH Regulation, Detergents Regulation, Biocide Products Regulation or the Aquatic Risk Assessment Guidelines were presented. The ecotoxicological effects of various contaminants such as detergents, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, biocides or heavy metals and environmental polluted samples (surface water, sediment or sludge) were provided. Overall, the studies presented in our studies have a nationally novelty through the variety of test substances, the complexity of laboratory experiments and data processing. The research work has a continue applicability in industry and for control authorities. New accredited testing services that providing useful information about the chemicals and their impact on the environmental were introduced. In addition, the ecotoxicology studies and their challenges were a great source for professional training like PhD and master studies and for impact published papers. Keywords: chemicals, ecotoxicity, aquatic, risk, bio-indicator, biomarker The interest of scientists to identify, solve and prevent the environmental problems has become a priority in the context of population growth, waters contamination, global warming and ecosystems damage or their extinction [1]. Moreover, the human well-being led to chemical market expansion that have generated new anthropogenic contaminants in larger amounts, thus enhancing their negative impact on the environment. The ecotoxicology of anthropogenic contaminants became one of the most published life science topic, due to vast and complex research sources. Ecotoxicology field is a complex scientific discipline base on principles of toxicology, biology, chemistry and ecology, being focused on the research of chemical compounds effects on living organisms, other than man. The ecotoxicology is separated in two section: pollutant dynamics – that evaluate the mobility, migration, transformation, degradation in different environmental area; and bio toxicology - that examine the effects of toxic compounds on sensitive biological systems correlated with field data [1]. This review intends to highlight the progress of Romanian research, especially from National Research and Development Institute for