Mitigating the risk of micropollutants in the environment

减轻环境中微污染物的风险

基本信息

批准号：
EP/I025782/1
负责人：
Russell Davenport
金额：
$ 142万
依托单位：
Newcastle University
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FI025782%2F1
关键词：
Mitigating risk micropollutants environment

项目摘要

The vision of this research is to achieve a chemical safe world where the benefits of modern products and processes can be enjoyed by all without undue detriment to the planetary ecosystem on which all life depends. It aims to improve our understanding and prediction of a key uncertainty (i.e. microbial biotransformation) that underpins ways in which society can reduce the risks posed by potentially hazardous chemicals to environmental and human health. Such chemicals are manufactured and present in many everyday products that benefit the health and well-being of consumers world-wide, and the economic prosperity and productivity of societies, examples include: personal care, domestic and hygiene products; pesticides; pharmaceuticals; and plastics. Environmental and human exposure to these chemicals can occur throughout the life cycle of a product; from its manufacture, distribution and use, to exposure after disposal and breakdown of the product. There has been widespread concern about the pervasive use of chemicals and their potential dangerous side-effects on wildlife and humans ever since Rachel Carson's landmark book in 1962 about the environmental hazards of the pesticide DDT. For instance, the 'feminising' effects on fish populations caused by low concentrations of natural and synthetic estrogens (e.g. in the contraceptive pill) and their chemical mimics (so-called micropollutants) is well publicised. It is widely suspected, though not proven, that many micropollutants are linked to cancers, reproductive and developmental diseases in humans. In fact there has been a relative rise in the incidence of such chronic diseases in the last two decades, making them surpass infectious diseases as the biggest global killer. These facts together with other case studies of environmental, occupational and consumer hazards, have led the European Union to enact the precautionary principle in a number of comprehensive legislative directives including chemical regulation and management of the water environment to protect the environment and human health. Analysis has shown that the benefit of such measures far out way their costs.The ways in which we can reduce risks to these chemicals are: i) by identifying hazardous chemicals and restricting their manufacture, distribution and use more effectively - so called chemical regulationii) by improving engineered technologies to remove hazardous chemical pollutants when they are released into the environment e.g. wastewater treatment worksiii) designing chemicals that have no hazardous properties - so called green chemicals . Microbial biotransformations, such as biodegradation by bacteria, play a direct and key role in each of these risk reduction strategies. In chemical regulation (i above), biodegradation is one of the most important factors in determining the extent and likelihood that a given chemical will persist in the environment (air, water, soil and sediment) and therefore the likely concentration to which wildlife and humans will be exposed. Known hazardous (toxic) chemicals tend to persist longer than non-hazardous ones. Biodegradation is also a central process in which many engineered technologies remove chemical pollutants (ii above). We also need to evaluate biodegradation in order to understand what chemical structures are resistant to biodegradation, and thereby avoid their use in the design of new products (iii above). This research has two objectives towards providing greater certainty and improvements in risk mitigation strategies:1. To build a world class team to tackle this challenging issue.2. To discover the fundamental rules that govern micropollutant biotransformation through case studies.The research will benefit policy-makers, governmental regulatory agencies, the chemical and water industries, and eventually the whole of society as this scientific understanding improves ways in which chemical risks are managed.

这项研究的愿景是实现一个化学安全世界，在该世界中，所有人都可以享受现代产品和过程的好处，而不会损害所有生命的行星生态系统。它旨在提高我们对关键不确定性（即微生物生物转化）的理解和预测，这些不确定性是社会降低潜在危险化学物质对环境和人类健康造成的风险的基础。这些化学品是在许多日常产品中生产和存在的，这些产品使全球消费者的健康和福祉受益，社会的经济繁荣和生产力包括：个人护理，家庭和卫生产品；农药；药品；和塑料。在产品的整个生命周期中，环境和人类接触这些化学物质可能会发生。从其生产，分销和使用，到处置和破坏产品后的暴露。自1962年雷切尔·卡森（Rachel Carson）的地标书籍关于农药DDT的环境危害以来，人们普遍使用化学物质及其对野生动植物和人类的潜在危险副作用的广泛关注。例如，众所周知，由低浓度的天然和合成雌激素（例如，在避孕药中）及其化学模拟物（所谓的微污染物）引起的“女性化”影响。人们普遍怀疑，尽管没有证明，许多微污染物与人类的癌症，生殖和发育疾病有关。实际上，在过去的二十年中，这种慢性疾病的发生率相对增加，这使得它们超越了传染病，成为全球最大的杀手。这些事实以及其他有关环境，职业和消费者危害的案例研究导致欧盟在许多全面的立法指令中制定了预防原则，包括化学法规和对水环境的管理，以保护环境和人类健康。分析表明，这种措施的好处远远超出了其成本。我们可以降低这些化学物质的风险的方式是：i）通过识别有害化学物质并限制其制造，分配和更有效地限制其制造，分配和使用（所谓的化学法规），通过改善工程技术来清除危险化学污染物时，当它们被释放到环境中时，例如。废水处理工作I）设计没有危险特性的化学物质 - 所谓的绿色化学物质。微生物生物转化（例如细菌生物降解）在每种风险降低策略中都起着直接而关键的作用。在化学调节（上面i）中，生物降解是确定给定化学物质在环境中持续存在的程度和可能性的最重要因素之一，因此可能暴露于野生动植物和人类的可能浓度。已知的危险（有毒）化学物质的持续时间比非危害化学物质持续更长。生物降解也是许多工程技术去除化学污染物（II上述）的中心过程。我们还需要评估生物降解，以了解哪些化学结构对生物降解具有抗性，从而避免使用它们在新产品的设计中使用（上面III）。这项研究具有两个目标，以提供更大的确定性和改善风险策略：1。建立一个世界一流的团队来解决这个具有挑战性的问题2。为了发现通过案例研究来管理微污染物生物转变的基本规则。该研究将使政策制定者，政府监管机构，化学和水工业以及整个社会受益，因为这种科学理解改善了管理化学风险的方式。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（10）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Standard inocula preparations reduce the bacterial diversity and reliability of regulatory biodegradation tests.

DOI：
10.1007/s11356-013-2064-4
发表时间：
2014
期刊：
Environmental science and pollution research international
影响因子：
0
作者：
Goodhead AK;Head IM;Snape JR;Davenport RJ
通讯作者：
Davenport RJ

Scientific concepts and methods for moving persistence assessments into the 21st century.

DOI：
10.1002/ieam.4575
发表时间：
2022-11
期刊：
INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT
影响因子：
3.1
作者：
Davenport, Russell;Curtis-Jackson, Pippa;Dalkmann, Philipp;Davies, Jordan;Fenner, Kathrin;Hand, Laurence;McDonough, Kathleen;Ott, Amelie;Ortega-Calvo, Jose Julio;Parsons, John R.;Schaffer, Andreas;Sweetlove, Cyril;Trapp, Stefan;Wang, Neil;Redman, Aaron
通讯作者：
Redman, Aaron

The experimental determination of reliable biodegradation rates for mono-aromatics towards evaluating QSBR models.

通过实验确定单芳烃的可靠生物降解率，以评估 QSBR 模型。