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Strategies for Sustainability
Strategies for Sustainability A further contribution of mine to the debate on moving towards a sustainable pharmaceutical industry has recently been published in European Pharmaceutical Contractor.
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Quantitative risk assessment for contaminated land
The discipline of chemical risk assessment for contaminated land continues to be in a state of flux. The Environment Agency published revised technical guidance and updated versions of the CLEA model in 2008 and 2009 but funding issues and re-organisations within the Agency appear to have left the job finished as updated guidance has not been issued for some of the commonly occurring and ‘difficult’ contaminants.
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wca environment support Movember
Several of the more gullible (or brave??) male wca staff recently took part in this year’s Movember. For those who don’t know this is the month long moustache growing competition that takes place each year in November in aid of Men’s heath. A brief gallery of their “achievements” is shown below. So far the wca [...]
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Ecopharmacovigilance – An update
Interest in ecopharmacovigilance has been given a boost by the appearance of a new EU Directive and associated regulation revising the law on pharmacovigilance.
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COMING SOON: 2013 REACH Registration Deadline
Under REACH, European industry has to face the 2013 deadline for the registration of all phase-in substances manufactured or imported in the EU above 100 tonnes per year.
All the companies involved in this phase should start work now to make sure that they have time to fulfill all the obligations required for the registration. -
Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials
Pete and I attended the 6th International Meeting on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials in London last week. There appeared to be a general consensus that nanoparticular forms of substances are often no more toxic than their “bulk” or, in the case of metals, ionic, forms.
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OECD workshop on the environmental assessment of metals
I recently contributed to a workshop organised by the OECD which was aimed at raising awareness of the various approaches that have been developed (mostly in Europe and North America) for performing hazard assessments for metals.
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Effects on iron on ecological communities
Mark and I have been working with the Iron industry to try to understand the effects of iron on aquatic ecosystems. We have been analysing extensive field monitoring data on the quality of invertebrate communities in rivers and relating this to the levels of different forms of iron (total, dissolved, or particulate) that are present.
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Biotic Ligand Model for Manganese
Biotic ligand models (BLMs) have become a very valuable aid to assessing the risks posed by metals in the aquatic environment, because they enable us to understand the effect of water quality on metal toxicity. Graham and I, along with Steve Lofts at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, have been working with the Environment Agency and the International Manganese Institute to develop and validate BLMs for manganese
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Silver levels in the aquatic environment
Pete, Graham, and I have been working with the Environment Agency and the European Precious Metals Federation to assess the levels of dissolved silver in the surface waters of England and Wales. The results of this work were used to estimate a “background” concentration of silver in the surface waters of England and Wales, which was calculated to be 6.1 ng l-1.
Latest posts from the wca environment blog
- Strategies for Sustainability
- Quantitative risk assessment for contaminated land
- wca environment support Movember

