Our Chemicals in the Environment group focuses on two main research themes:

Understanding the fate and behaviour of chemicals in the environment

With a population of over 60 million, the UK produces around 3.6 billion tonnes of sewage a year (1½ times the volume of Lake Victoria, the largest of all African lakes) – its treatment presents a huge challenge, exacerbated by the occurrence of often hazardous chemicals. Although the concentration of contaminants in this environment is often studied, little is really understood about factors controlling their long term fate and impacts – this is the focus of our research. To tackle this problem, we use chemical measures and bioanalytical techniques to better understand the impact of contaminants.

Dr. Mark Scrimshaw is developing this research theme through collaboration within and beyond the Institute and opportunities to link this understanding to the more complex issues surrounding human health exist through collaboration with Dr. Ariana Zeka.

Clean and clean-up technologies

The development of clean technologies involves optimisation and improved control of chemical reactions in existing processes and the development of new processes to achieve environmentally clean reactions. In particular, Dr. Abdul Chaudhary's work on the development of a concentrator cell to improve metal recovery systems from dilute solutions for the control of industrial pollution received the Queen’s Award for Environmental Achievement.

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A group of researchers at the Institute for the Environment focuses its work on climatic change issues: the science and the impacts. We have expertise in past (palaeo-climatology of the recent past - Quaternary Period, and ancient past - Palaeozoic Era), present (water quality, biomonitoring, pollution), and future (climatic modelling) climatic research. Our projects cover the range of field-based, laboratory-based and computer-based research. The impacts we work on cover a wide range of disciplines: from physics of the atmosphere, plant and animal distributions, sedimentary materials, microbes, air quality to pollution and energy.

One staff member is part of the IPCC board (Prof Suzanne Leroy).

Please refer to individual staff web pages for more details.

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The key aim of the Ecotoxicology group is to investigating the impacts of chemical pollutants on wildlife and organisms.

Brunel University has a long history of pioneering research in environmental toxicology with particular emphasis on the causes and effects of endocrine disruption in aquatic wildlife. The group has several important themes:

Chemical effects on the reproduction and sexual development of aquatic organisms, particularly fish and, more recently, molluscs

Thousands of chemicals enter rivers in effluent from sewage treatment works. Many of these chemicals are probably of no environmental concern, but a few are. We focus on those we consider most likely to be of concern and we study their effects on aquatic species, both in the laboratory and the environment.

Amphibian ecotoxicology and endocrine disruption

We have worked with the UK Government Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential for endocrine disruption in native British amphibians, and have contributed significantly to OECD initiatives to develop amphibian test methods for detecting thyroid active chemicals.

Multiple stressors

Our work is now considering the influence of the conditions of exposure on top of the exposure itself. For example, we are investigating factors such as temperature, oxygen levels and food availability.

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The aim of the Epidemiology and Environmental Health group is to:

Understand and examine the factors that determine population health risk factors

We focus on population health studies with a particular emphasis on social factors. These are important contributors to environmental health risks like cancer and birth outcomes. Our work also considers occupational risks, by studying metalworking fluids, for example, and environmental exposures, like air pollution. We have also made several important methodological contributions to epidemiology.

Our current research considers the impact of polices on population health change, including EU directives to reduce air pollution, the introduction of smoking bans, political change and transition in restructuring countries and modifications of these impacts by socioeconomics.

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The research in the Human Toxicology and Risk Assessment group falls into two broad themes:

Dealing with cocktail effects in chemicals regulation and risk assessment

Traditional chemicals risk assessment has a quite artificial orientation: It treats chemicals as if they act in isolation, when in reality there is exposure to multiple substances. We have developed ways of improving chemical risk assessment by taking “cocktail effects” into account. Following 15 years of research led by Prof. Andreas Kortenkamp, our work is beginning to influence European Union chemicals regulation, particularly in the area of pesticides and endocrine disrupters.

Hormones and human cancers

Hormones play a role in cancers of the breast, prostate and testes, but how precisely they influence the disease process remains unclear. Our research aims at elucidating the role that hormones and hormone-like chemicals play in cellular and tissue maintenance, carcinogenesis and tumour progression. Dr. Elisabete Silva is developing three dimensional breast epithelial cell culture systems for the study of signalling processes.

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Addressing impacts of climatic and geological hazards on human civilization

Natural hazards are seen as an important threat to our society and is at the core of our research here in the Institute for the Environment. Our staff have a record of involvement in international projects concerned with hazards posed to human society through rapid climatic and sea-level change and seismic events. For example, Professor Suzanne A G Leroy is leading an international focus group on "Hazards and humans" for the TERPRO commission of INQUA.

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