Basic objective of the research plan is complex approach to study of interactions among chemical compounds present in environmental compartments and their biological effects, study of the fate of mainly persistent chemical compounds in the environment, their effects on the environment and living organisms including human.
Fate in this concept consists of a summary of transport (from their input in the environment, transport within the environmental compartment, where they are discharged, transport among compartments and long-range transport in the environment) and transformation processes (abiotic and biotic transformations). It also includes study of distribution equilibriums, properties conditioning their environmental behaviour, study of the transformation processes and their products.

This complex approach is a part of long-term research activities of the centre RECETOX. It is based on exploration of the causality among chemical (presence of chemical compounds in the environment) and biological (mechanisms of effects on the living organisms) part of the problem of chemical contamination of the environment.

This complex approach requires interdisciplinary, team collaboration of specialists from number of natural sciences and is very demanding on equipment and financial sources.

The submitted research plan concentrates on acquirement of new scientific information and experimental data concerned with problem of chemical contamination of the environment with persistent, toxic compounds (persistent, organic pollutants, heavy metals, organometallic compounds). It is necessary to distinguish this contamination from natural migration of the compounds in atmosphere, biosphere and geosphere, and also study its interactions within these environmental spheres.

The basic objective of the research plan is characterization of fate and negative effects of chemical compounds in real ecosystems by interconnection of a few scientific disciplines studying:

chemical compounds in the environment - fate - transport and transformation, distribution in and among compartments; their determination in different abiotic and biotic environmental components,
abiotic processes in the environment - differentiation and migration of the compounds in the atmosphere and geosphere - geology, geochemistry, paleontology and climatology
effects of chemical compounds on living organisms – biochemical toxicology, genotoxicology, ecotoxicology, ecological epidemiology;
ecologic and human risks combining knowledge of more disciplines for quantification of existing risks

Results

Publications