Upcoming event

Virtual Environmental & Food Analysis SIG

13th AUGUST 2020 15:00 – 16:30 BST (GMT +1)

PROGRAMME:

15:00 Welcome

15:05 KEYNOTE LECTURE: Dr Roxana Suehring

15:40 Presentation (Neville Llewellyn, Thermofisher)

15:55 Networking Activity

16:25 Wrap Up

16:30 Close

KEYNOTE LECTURE:

Dr Roxana Suehring is an Assistant Professor for environmental analytical chemistry at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.  Research focus includes the development of novel analytical techniques to evaluate the fate and behaviour of emerging organic contaminants in the aquatic environment, their potential for long-range transport into the Arctic, and the impact of multiple stressors on contaminant-related environmental risk. Apart from work as a researcher, Dr Suehring been a policy advisor on environmental risk assessment for offshore chemicals and spills from historic shipwrecks.   

More information on my research can be found at: https://www.ryerson.ca/cab/facultyandstaff/Roxana-suehring/

Navigating the chemical soup – unknown analysis for regulatory purposes

Environmental risk assessment has a problem: assessment methods, test methods and regulatory thresholds are designed for evaluating the environmental risk of single substances, whereas in the environment chemical exposure is always a mixture exposure. There have been advances in the assessment of toxicological mixture effects and, to an extent, impact of mixture on bioaccumulation and persistence tests. However, these studies rely on knowing the individual components of the mixture, having analytical standards for each component, and being able to control the complexity of the mixture in the test system. Unfortunately, none of these perquisites apply in the environment, or even for the risk assessment of complex substances such as UVCBs.

Analytical chemistry is the foundation for informing the establishment of robust risk assessment criteria of complex mixtures. However, in order to do so we need to develop innovative analytical methods that can provide quantitative information on unknown constituents. Here, I would like to highlight some of the advances that have been made to address this conundrum as well as some of the urgent questions that remain.