An indispensable asset at risk: merits and needs of chemicals-related environmental sciences

Abstract

We point out the need for a strong academic research and education system in chemicals-related environmental sciences to ministries, politicians, and research funding institutions and we propose to create specific units in the national funding bodies that address basic and interdisciplinary research in this field.

Effect-directed analysis (EDA) in aquatic ecotoxicology: state of the art and future challenges

“…Finally, we wish to strongly recommend to national and international agencies, organizations, and regulatory bodies the need to financially support basic and interdisciplinary research towards further development and application of effect-directed analysis. The ultimate goal is to provide advanced tools for more effective, economic, and safe ERA (Schaeffer et al 2009). …”

Behavioural ecotoxicology, an “early warning” signal to assess environmental quality

“…Borja and Dauer (2008) describe the four corners of environmental quality assessment as: “(1) assessing ecological integrity, (2) evaluating if significant ecological degradation has occurred, (3) identifying the spatial extent and location of ecological degradation and (4) determining causes of unacceptable degradation in order to guide management actions.” The identification of cause represents a major issue that has been addressed in toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) or in effects evaluation analysis studies. Recent publications by Perron et al (2010), Hecker and Hollert (2009), Schaeffer et al (2009), Brack et al (2008) and Gomez-Gutierrez et al (2007) provide a wealth of references on this aspect of risk assessment and outline the critical role played by chemical analyses. The importance of chemical analyses is also apparent in the work described in a large section of the present manuscript (Section 7).…”

Environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology: in greater demand than ever

“…The goal of UFOH was to analyze both the status quo of chemical-related environmental research at universities and the prospects for its future development. In 2009, the members of this group stated [2]:“Although qualified young environmental scientists are in great demand by industry and authorities, the number of university chairs in this field is steadily and disproportionately declining. Also, the financial support for research projects has been significantly shortened, unlike in other research areas, such as biotechnology or nanotechnology.…”