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UK/OZ/NZ Collaboration - What contaminants?

We live in a world where water pollution is part of our everyday lives and where its harmful health effects are often not noticed until its too late. This is a world contaminated by small amounts of multiple chemicals, rather than large amounts of any particular chemical. Where it is often difficult to associate any particular health effect to any specific chemical. Increased droughts and related climate change phenomena mean that contaminant-related problems are likely to be exacerbated.

Now more than ever, society needs tools with which to assess the safety of our chemical cocktail environment, particularly in urban areas where 90% of the population live and work and in areas of water shortage, where chemical cocktails are most concentrated.

The network has been set up to provide a structure to establish UK-Australia collaborations on water shortage and consequent water pollution, in particular pollution related health and environmental problems concerning endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and other emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals and nanoparticles.

The UK has done a lot of research in these areas (particularly with EDCs) and has developed predictive models of concentrations of EDCs in river catchments and has studied consequent health consequences to aquatic biota. UK and Europe has also regulated some EDCs because of their predicted or real biological effects. More recent research suggests that the presence of other stressors (temperature, salinity, etc) may exacerbate these effects.

In Australia, some of these chemicals are still in use and potential health effects have not been studied. Similarly, the UK has not experienced the extreme climatic conditions that co-occur with chemical contaminants in Australia. Key aims of the collaboration will be to explore similarities and differences in water contaminant related issues in UK and Australia and to use the information gained to develop useful tools and techniques with which to predict and manage future issues. The collaboration will provide a forum where the two ends of the globe can interact and address areas that are of mutual concern from research issues right through to policy solutions.