EcoChemistry
Modern society relies on a wide range of organic chemicals to protect food, health and quality of life. Our EcoChemistry team specialises in strategic and applied research into the fate and behaviour of chemicals in the environment, pathways of exposure, and risks to human health and the environment. The team is a joint venture between CSL and the Environment Department of the University of York.
We work on pesticides and human/veterinary pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, biocides, nanoparticles and waste. We are the leading UK authority on the environmental fate and behaviour of nanomaterials. Our consultancy services provide environmental modelling and specialist fate studies for the agrochemical and veterinary pharmaceutical industries.
Activities
Our research focuses on pathways of environmental contamination for organic contaminants and other synthetic chemicals that are released into the environment at any point during their life cycle, such as pesticides sprayed onto a field or human pharmaceuticals passing through a sewage treatment plant.
This research is designed to deliver responsible use of chemicals for societal benefits, accompanied by robust protection of the environment. We are involved in prioritising chemicals, quantifying the sources of contaminants, understanding the processes that govern their behaviour and monitoring their presence in different environmental compartments.
We use a range of techniques from controlled laboratory experimentation to catchment-level studies.
Achievements
- Revising regulatory procedures to reduce diffuse pollution from pesticides, and developing waste-processing systems to eliminate point contamination from farmyards.
- Identifying contamination of soils and water by veterinary antibiotics, and designing and delivering a pilot monitoring programme for emerging contaminants.
- A BBSRC project studying soil as a buffer against contamination generated a novel, diffusion-based approach to measure and describe changes in the availability of chemicals with time.
- Identified possibility for consumer exposure to veterinary medicines via uptake into crops, and completed work for HSE to characterise operator exposure to pesticide residues on spray equipment.
Publications
Brown C D, Turner N L, Hollis J M, Bellamy P H, Biggs J, Williams P, Arnold D J, Pepper T, Maund S J: Morphological and physico-chemical properties of British aquatic habitats potentially exposed to pesticides. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, Vol 113, pp 307-319.
Kah M, Brown C D: Adsorption of ionisable pesticides in soil. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Vol 188, pp 149-218.
Van Beinum W, Beulke S, Brown C D: Pesticide sorption and desorption by lignin described by an intraparticle diffusion model. Environmental Science and Technology, Vol 40, pp 494-500.
Van den Brink P J, Brown C D, Dubus I G: Using the expert model PERPEST to translate measured and predicted pesticide exposure data into ecological risks. Ecological Modelling, Vol 191, pp 106-117.
Boxall A B A, Johnson P, Smith E J, Sinclair C J, Stutt E, Levy L: Uptake of veterinary medicines from soils into plants. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol 54, pp 2288-2297.
Capelton A, Courage C, Rumsby P, Stutt E, Boxall A, Levy L: Prioritising veterinary medicines according to their potential indirect human exposure and toxicity profile. Toxicology Letters, Vol 163, pp 213-223.