Background
In the EU and Dutch registration procedure, exposure assessment models such as PEARL, TOXSWA, SWASH and GEM, are used to evaluate the environmental risk of agricultural use of plant protection products. For each of these models substance specific parameters are required as input to calculate the relevant environmental exposure concentrations. Because a number of substance properties are the same for all of these models, SPIN has been developed to edit and store substance properties.
SPIN philosophy
In the EU and Dutch registration procedure according to EU regulation 1107/2009, exposure assessment models such as FOCUS_PEARL, FOCUS_SWASH, FOCUS_TOXSWA, GEM, GeoPEARL and DROPLET are used to evaluate the environmental risk resulting from the agricultural use of plant protection products, to the aquatic ecosystem and to groundwater and surface water resources for drinking water production. For each of these models, substance specific parameters are required as input to calculate the relevant environmental exposure concentrations. Because part of these substance properties are the same for these models, the tool SPIN (Substances Plug-IN) has been developed. The aim of SPIN is to assist users with creation, modification and storage of substances and their properties. It provides unequivocal definition and recording of substance properties with a standardized interface, to apply from within these host model applications. SPIN helps to secure the integrity of an assessment using different exposure assessment models.
SPIN 3.3 and the supported host applications
SPIN 3.3 features
SPIN 3.3 is basically a database that stores substance properties that are required by the supported exposure assessment models. The SPIN 3.3 user interface facilitates access to the database and interaction with the user. In SPIN 3.3, each substance (either active ingredient or metabolite) has a unique code, a name and a short description. New substances can be added easily to the database by creating or by copying, renaming and editing an existing substance. Substance properties are organized according to the process they address, i.e. ‘General’, ‘Sorption’, ‘Transformation’ or ‘Crop processes’. To facilitate easy creation of new substances, example substances are provided for each host application, which can be copied and modified.
SPIN can run standalone or it can be started by a host application. In standalone mode, all substance properties are editable. When started by a host application, only the host-specific substance properties are accessible and can be edited. The SPIN 3.3 database itself can be copied and exchanged between users. Substances with their properties can be exported and imported using a pre-described procedure.
New releases of SPIN are backwards compatible with all host applications that require SPIN. It is not necessary to have multiple installations of different SPIN versions on the same system. SPIN 3.3 automatically creates a new database when it does not detect an existing database: i.e. when the old database has been removed or when no prior installation of a SPIN version has been done. SPIN 3.3 can be installed by the user at a local PC and by a network administrator (SPIN Downloads | Pesticidemodels.eu). The official version of SPIN is hosted on the website FOCUS DG SANTE. This official version is compatible with both FOCUS applications (FOCUS_SWASH, FOCUS_TOXSWA, FOCUS_PEARL) and non-FOCUS applications (GEM, GeoPEARL, DROPLET). A pre-release version (release candidate) of SPIN may temporarily be hosted on www.pesticidemodels.eu when this is needed for the release of a non-FOCUS application. Such a pre-release version will not be compatible with FOCUS applications.
Software Quality Status A
SPIN 3.3 (FOCUS_SPIN version 3.3) is in compliance with the Software Quality Status A for models and databases of Wageningen University and Research, i.e. conform the requirements for software robustness, software and model performance tests, documentation of the concepts and user documentation (read more – in Dutch).
december 21, 2023.
