Mitigating the risk of micropollutants in the environment

这项研究的愿景是实现一个化学安全的世界，所有人都可以享受现代产品和工艺的好处，而不会对所有生命所依赖的地球生态系统造成不当损害。它旨在提高我们对一种关键不确定性（即微生物生物转化）的理解和预测，这种不确定性是社会减少潜在危险化学品对环境和人类健康构成的风险的基础。这些化学品被制造出来并存在于许多日常产品中，有益于全世界消费者的健康和福祉以及社会的经济繁荣和生产力，例如：个人护理、家庭用品和卫生用品；农药;药品;和塑料。在产品的整个生命周期中，环境和人类都可能接触到这些化学物质；从产品的制造、分销和使用，到产品处置和分解后的暴露。自从1962年雷切尔·卡森（Rachel Carson）出版了一本具有里程碑意义的书，讲述杀虫剂DDT对环境的危害以来，人们一直普遍担心化学品的广泛使用及其对野生动物和人类的潜在危险副作用。例如，低浓度的天然和合成雌激素（例如避孕药）及其化学模拟物（所谓的微污染物）对鱼类种群造成的“雌性化”影响得到了广泛的宣传。人们普遍怀疑，尽管尚未得到证实，许多微污染物与人类的癌症、生殖和发育疾病有关。事实上，在过去二十年中，这类慢性病的发病率相对上升，使其超过传染病，成为全球最大的杀手。这些事实，加上对环境、职业和消费者危害的其他案例研究，促使欧洲联盟在一些综合性立法指令中颁布了预防原则，包括化学品管制和水环境管理，以保护环境和人类健康。分析表明，这些措施的收益远远超过其成本。我们可以减少这些化学品风险的方法是：i)通过识别危险化学品并更有效地限制其制造、分销和使用-所谓的化学法规；ii)通过改进工程技术，在危险化学污染物释放到环境中时去除它们，例如废水处理厂；iii)设计没有危险特性的化学品-所谓的绿色化学品。微生物的生物转化，如细菌的生物降解，在这些减少风险的战略中发挥着直接和关键的作用。在化学品管制（上文一）中，生物降解是决定某种化学品在环境（空气、水、土壤和沉积物）中持续存在的程度和可能性以及野生动物和人类可能接触到的浓度的最重要因素之一。已知的有害（有毒）化学物质往往比无害化学物质存在的时间更长。生物降解也是许多工程技术去除化学污染物的核心过程（上文ii）。我们还需要评估生物降解，以了解哪些化学结构抵抗生物降解，从而避免在新产品的设计中使用它们（上文iii）。本研究有两个目标，旨在为风险缓解战略提供更大的确定性和改进：建立一个世界级的团队来解决这个具有挑战性的问题。通过案例研究发现微污染物生物转化的基本规律。这项研究将使决策者、政府监管机构、化学和水工业以及最终整个社会受益，因为这种科学理解改善了管理化学品风险的方式。

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.