Satellite Events
On Sunday 11 June 2023, a set of Satellite Events are offered prior to the opening of the Conference.
Course registration is open to members and guests. Note that you do not need to register for the full Conference to attend a Satellite Event. Register by 30th April 2023 to ensure that your preferred Satellite Event will take place.
Satellite Events will be held either as half- or full-day courses.
Half-day courses are 3 hours in length and are presented either in the morning (09:00-12.30) or afternoon (13:30-16:30), while full-day courses include 3-hour sessions in both the morning and afternoon, with a one-hour lunch break at 12:30. A coffee corner will be available the whole day.
Distribution of course contents and teaching responsibilities are left up to the instructors.
This workshop will introduce envipath.org, an internationally unique resource for storing and predicting microbial biotransformation pathways of organic contaminants in different environments including soil, sediment, activated sludge and pure and enrichment cultures. Key elements of the enviPath database are biotransformation pathways, reactions, transformation products, and biotransformation reaction rules. It currently contains three major data packages with over 700 contaminant pathways altogether.
In the first part of the workshop, theory sessions will introduce the scope and general structure of enviPath, introduce the data packages available in enviPath and explain the algorithms underlying the training and execution of the pathway prediction component of enviPath. These theory inputs will be complemented by hands-on exercises on entering your own data package into enviPath and on producing and extracting own predicted biotransformation pathways for contaminants of interest to you. In the second part of the workshop, a selection of invited speakers will explain how they use enviPath in their research and/or teaching. Finally, the day will be rounded of by short inputs in recent ongoing developments of enviPath, e.g., half-life prediction, automated rule generation, and linking transformation reactions to genes/enzymes.
Time | Topic | Presenter |
09:00 – 09:10 | Welcome and technical comments | Roland Kallenborn |
09:10 – 09:30 | Motivation and report concept, Introduction into the topic | Cynthia de Wit |
09:30 – 10:00 | Long-range transport – Diffusive pollution sources | Hayley Hung |
10:00 – 10:20 | Modelling local sources and long-range transport: A case study from Nuuk | Katrin Vorkamp |
10:20 – 10:50 | Health break | |
10:50 – 11:10 | Domestic, industrial and military pollution sources | Roland Kallenborn |
11:10 – 11:30 | Emissions of chemicals with wastewater | Pernille E. Jensen |
11:30 – 11:50 | Future perspectives | Derek C.G. Muir & Maria Gunnarsdottir |
11:50 – 13:00 | Lunch break | |
13:00 – 13:20 | Regulatory aspects | Timo Seppälä or Emily Cowan |
13:20 – 13:40 | Local contaminant sources in the history of AMAP | Lars-Otto Reiersen |
13:40 – 13:50 | Health Break | |
13:50 – 15:00 | Open discussion and concluding remarks | All contributing experts |
Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) include more than 4700 substances identified by a specific C.A.S. number but, despite their large use for decades in industrial and consumer products and environmental persistence, for most of them there is still little information on uses, behavior, occurrence, and effects on the environment.
For this reason, PFAS, as a class, represent a relevant challenge on multiple levels, such as i) developing analytical methods for their analysis in environmental matrixes at sub-trace concentrations (also required by the Directive 2020/2137/EU), ii) identifying the nature and toxicity of their precursors and degradation products, iii) developing technological solutions for their removal and elimination from water and soil, and iv) investigating their bioaccumulation in plants and animals.
Furthermore, the development of suitable and effective regulation and management strategies has proven to be quite difficult, especially due to multitude of substances containing one or more C-F moieties deemed as “essential chemicals”, and thus exempt from most restriction measures provided by the legislation on chemicals actually in force (e.g. REACH).
During the seminar, leading experts will present and discuss the latest developments regarding these challenges, with a special focus on their interconnection.
This Satellite Event will focus on the developments in technologies and their applications for the characterisation and enumeration of micro and nanoplastics within diverse matrices. Research presented will be of an interdisciplinary nature and technologies will include Raman, SERS, FTIR, laser light scattering, mass spectrometry and microfluidics among others. The intended audience will include researchers working in those fields as well as those interested in sampling, sample preparation and analysis of micro and nanoplastics either as researchers or equipment developers and manufacturers.
Microplastics (MPs) are increasingly and almost ubiquitously present in the environment, where they may pose a risk to corresponding ecosystems and, in the longer run, even remain as prominent markers of the anthropocene. Assessing their exposure requires reliable and quantitative analytical methods at mostly trace concentrations. However, widely established quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) measures in analytical chemistry are not yet regularly and fully implemented in MP analysis. Moreover, due to the different nature of particulate in comparison with elemental or molecular analytes, these measures may need adaption or even expansion when applied to MP analysis.
In this Satellite event, we will present and discuss a series of concepts, examples and recommendations how to translate and implement established QA/QC tools into MP analysis of complex matrices. These include among others the selection and use of different surrogate standards (e.g. coloured, isotope-labelled, fluorescent or metal doped) along different steps of the analytical chain to account for, e.g., extraction, pyrolysis or imaging efficiency, the development and use of controls such as fresh and aged MP standards and spiked reference materials, as well as inter-laboratory comparisons and ring trials. Whenever possible, one should resort to complementary analytical approaches based in orthogonal instrumentation and detection principles, and determine concentrations based on both on number and mass concentration, and in combination with size distribution. Figures of merits of any validated analytical method include method detection limits, blank levels, (linear) concentration ranges, repeatability and reproducibility, recoveries, matrix effects, etc. Their determination and reporting should (even) more regularly become good analytical practise among analytical chemists investigating MP in complex matrices.
The above aspects will first be presented with input presentations by distinct experts in the field, followed by a moderated discussion with the speakers and the audience. The overall aim of this satellite is to raise awareness about the importance QA/QC in MP analysis, and to provide a conceptual toolbox to facilitate its implementation in our future research.
This Satellite Event will be held on Sunday afternoon, from 13:30 to 16:30.
This short course is designed to assist scientists, junior and senior in writing successful scientific papers for dedicated journals to build their professional career. The course will show to the participants how to prepare good papers and how they can be written. It will present advice and comments for overcoming usual and common obstacles such as targeting journals, finding an attractive entry for the manuscript, presenting tables and data, and writing a fruitful discussion.
This course was designed with the help of scientists and researchers involved in scientific publishing in environmental and analytical chemistry. The target audience includes scientific writers from undergraduate/doctorate level up to senior experienced scientists who strive to improve their written communication skills.