Hazardous substances and their disposal
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- How can innovation in chemical production, use, and disposal across the supply chain minimise chemical-related risks, benefiting the circular economy and reducing pollution?
- How can it be ensured that our regulatory approach accommodates future trends in new technologies and health and environmental hazards?
- How do we effectively monitor and assess the impact of emerging threats on water quality and ecology (for example plastics, antimicrobial resistance, neonicotinoid pesticides, nanoparticles, pharmaceuticals, invasive species, and chemicals) to inform risk-based decision making?
- Are there risks associated with this new energy landscape and how could they be best controlled? Do co-located technologies pose new hazards and risks? What new hazards arise from how new energy systems are integrated and controlled?
- How can we most effectively implement nature-based solutions, such as tree planting and peatland restoration, to address climate change, support progress to net zero carbon emission, reduce biodiversity loss and prevent poverty?
- Improve quantification of air pollution and noise impacts on ecosystems
- What are the trade-offs between primary resource extraction versus reclamation of resources from waste streams in the context of resource security? How circular can the UK economy become?
- How can other environmental impacts of creative industries activities be measured, such as their influence on extraction and use of raw materials (including plastics), waste, recycling and re-use practices?
- What impact could wider changes in the built environment, like decarbonisation, have on the pattern of removal of asbestos?
- New Methods of Assessment: How are new methods of determining and managing risk being developed and what is their potential impact on regulatory assessments carried out for chemicals? How might these new methods be evaluated and introduced into assessments to increase efficiency and effectiveness of that work whilst ensuring maximum benefits to society?
- How will the changing climate affect the persistence and movement of chemical contaminants in the environment?
- First responder capabilities and approaches to decontamination and recovery.
- What is the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment and within food systems, and to what extent is this facilitating the development and transmission of AMR between animal and human populations?
- Develop innovative and improved abatement technologies for air pollutant emissions and noise generation across all sectors and sources
- How can we improve the management of our ecosystems, including biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, environmental degradation, and the introduction of alien species, to reduce the risk of infectious zoonotic, animal, and plant diseases?
- What are the biggest chemical, pesticide, and hazardous waste-related risks to the environment and human health, both in the UK and globally? What are the costs of inaction? How are these risks most effectively monitored and managed, and what is the role of government?
- Understand differential toxicity of particulate components, the importance of non-exhaust sources, relevance of pollutant mixtures, and the biological mechanisms for effects from different sound sources
- Can quantum hydrogen image and gas sensors provide a safer operating environmental for hydrogen vehicles and H fuel storage and conveyance?