Canada Research Chair in Ecotoxicology

我们将确定有毒化学物质，包括过去使用的，特别是当前使用的，如何释放到环境中，一旦在那里表现出来，如果它们这样做了，就会移动和降解。了解这些过程是如何工作的，对于确定这些化学物质对人类和其他活生物体的浓度以及暴露水平至关重要。这项工作将包括研究如何了解新的和更好的被动采样器如何收集水、土壤和污水中的药品、个人护理产品、农药及其各种降解产物。这将更好地表征此类化学物质的释放水平，并确定废物输入的(无毒)示踪剂，我们可以使用这些示踪剂来预测我们的湖泊和河流的污染水平，我们可以使用特殊的野外规模的设施以安全的方式进行测试。我们还将确定药物降解产品是否可能是水环境中此类化学物质的储存库，因为它们会恢复到原来的形式，或者本身可能是有害的。这项研究将为可持续环境保护提供合理的决策依据。

We will determine how toxic chemicals, both past-use but especially current-use, are released into the environment, behave once there, and move and degrade, if they do. Understanding how these processes work is essential to characterizing concentrations, and therefore exposure levels, of such chemicals to humans and other living organisms. This work will include research on understanding how new and better passive samplers can collect pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and their various degradation products in waters, soils, and sewage. This would better characterize release levels of such chemicals, and identify (nontoxic) tracers of waste inputs that we can use to predict contamination levels in our lakes and rivers, which we can test using special field-scale facilities in a safe manner. We will also determine if drug degradation products may be a reservoir of such chemicals in the aquatic environment, as they turn back into their original forms, or may themselves be harmful. This research will lead to sound decision-making for sustainable environmental protection.