Understanding the environmental risks posed by pollution from the digital economy

在我们的数字社会中，不断增长的材料消耗代表着不断增加的废物流，其中含有新型和复杂的化学混合物，包括许多形成氧阴离子的污染物（例如As， B, Cr, Mo, Sb， V, Se, Sb， Te等），威胁着淡水安全。当前的工业创新（如电动汽车、家用电力存储、物联网）和政策驱动因素（如英国/欧盟加速废物转化能源（EfW））将增加这些元素的未来使用，这将导致从生产和消费周期中释放到环境中的潜在排放。湖泊和河流的生态系统健康是由环境驱动因素（如营养物、天气、污染物等）之间的复杂关系所支撑的，并且可能因磷和砷等氧阴离子形成元素（OFEs）的输入而高度退化。由于在不同的pH值和氧化还原条件下与沉积物和生物群的相互作用，这些影响可以持续数十年。该项目将对关键生态系统的关键环境路径进行大规模评估，并结合实地和实验方法，全面研究已建立的生态系统在生态尺度上的影响（即从分子过程到受影响的生态系统）。来自这些方法的数据可用于为生态毒理学风险评估和预测模型提供信息，从而可以评估为减轻未来废物流情景的影响而制定的未来管理和政策方法。OFEs可以从各种工业来源释放，包括垃圾焚化炉灰烬、石油燃烧残留物和许多不同的采矿和金属加工废物（例如铁和铝矿石加工）。所有来源的一个共同因素是多种不同的氧阴离子污染物浓度升高，这些污染物通常很容易在相关的渗滤液中流动。这有助于定义一个简短的氧化离子污染物清单，包括有毒的OFEs，如as、V和Se，以纳入本项目。具体目标：1；利用现有数据和文献，开发OFE风险的概念模型，包括废物流、关键暴露途径、转化过程、生态系统效应和从集水区到全球尺度的风险评估，重点是英国规模。2 .调查受到严重污染的河流和湖泊，以建立现场OFE组成和行为之间的关系，集水区尺度通量模型，以及控制与受影响地点的净生态系统效应。生成实验和分子水平数据，以量化OFEs（作为单个成分和混合物）与接收水的其他化学成分之间相互作用的驱动因素，以确定受影响环境中潜在的重大生态毒理学效应。

The growing consumption of materials in our digital society represents an ever increasing waste stream containing novel and complex mixtures of chemicals, including many oxyanion forming contaminants (e.g. As, B, Cr, Mo, Sb, V, Se, Sb, Te, etc.) that threaten freshwater security. Current industrial innovations (e.g. electric vehicles, domestic power storage, the internet of things) and policy drivers (e.g. acceleration of Energy from Waste (EfW) in UK/EU) will increase future usage of these elements, which gives rise to potential releases from cycles of production and consumption into the environment. Ecosystem health in lakes and rivers are underpinned by complex relationships between environmental drivers (e.g. nutrients, weather, contaminants etc.), and can be highly degraded by inputs of oxyanion forming elements (OFEs) such as P and As. These effects can be persistent over decades as a result of interactions with sediments and biota under varying pH and redox. This project will produce a large scale assessment of key environmental pathways for key OFEs and combine field and experimental approaches to comprehensively study the effects of established OFEs across ecological scales (i.e. from molecular processes to impacted ecosystems). Data from these approaches can be used to inform ecotoxicological risk assessments and predictive models, with which future management and policy approaches, developed to mitigate the effects of future waste stream scenarios, can be evaluated. OFEs can be released from a wide range of industrial sources, including EfW incinerator ashes, petroleum combustion residues, and many different mining and metal processing wastes (e.g. iron and aluminium ore processing). A common factor across all sources is the occurrence of multiple different oxyanion contaminants present in elevated concentrations, which are often then readily mobilised in associated leachates. This has helped define a short list of oxyanion contaminants, including toxic OFEs such as As, V, and Se for inclusion in this project.Specific objectives: 1. Utilising available data and literature, develop a conceptual model of OFE risk including waste streams, critical exposure pathways, transformation processes, ecosystem effects and risk assessment from catchment to global scales, with a focus on the UK scale.2. Investigation of actively polluted rivers and lakes, to establish relationships between OFE composition and behaviour in the field, catchment scale flux models, and net ecosystem effects in control versus impacted sites.3. Produce experimental and molecular level data to quantify the drivers of interactions between OFEs (as individual components and mixtures) and other chemical components of receiving waters to define the potential for significant ecotoxicological effects in affected environments.