Webinar title: Regional Exposure and Ecological Risks of Persistent Halogenated Organic Compounds (PHCs)
Speaker: Bixian Mai
Webinar time: 9:30 am, November 24, 2023 (Friday)
Venue: Room 231, New Environmental Building; Tencent Meeting 180-225-219, Password 894562
Inviter: Ying Zhu, Jiayin Dai
Abstract:
Persistent halogenated Compounds (PHCs) are a class of persistent, bioaccumulative and biotoxic halogen-containing organic substances. Due to factors such as the extensive use of halogenated pesticides, pollution transfer represented by the dismantling of foreign waste, and the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the pollution of PHCs in China has become increasingly serious. Pollution from agricultural sources of PHCs, such as DDTs and similar compounds, is widespread in different regions and tends to persist over time. Industrial additive PHCs are more severely polluted in electronic waste dismantling areas and urban agglomerations. The environmental transmission process of PHCs in different ecosystems varies greatly. The food chain transfer of PHCs is affected by multiple factors, including the sources of PHCs, exposure pathways, the diet and trophic level of organisms, and the rate of PHCs metabolism and clearance. Apart from food intake, skin absorption and developmental processes can also affect the bioaccumulation of PHCs in amphibians and insects. Fish, birds, and humans differ in their PHCs metabolic pathways and metabolites, leading to different bioaccumulation patterns of PHCs. This study suggests that the exposure values of different organisms to PHCs should be comprehensively considered, taking into account various ecological and chemical factors. It is necessary to develop regional exposure assessment methods for environmental pollutants based on local biological characteristics, establish reasonable environmental benchmark values, and accurately assess the ecological risks of environmental pollutants.
About the speaker:
Bixian Mai is a researcher and doctoral supervisor at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). She was granted by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (2005), and the “Hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She has long been engaged in research on the environmental and biogeochemistry of organic pollutants and health risks. She has presided over or been the main member of more than 40 Key and General Programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program), the key research projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in frontier science, and the sub-projects of CAS Strategic Pilot Science and Technology Special Project (Class B). She has published more than 400 papers in domestic and international academic journals, including more than 300 international SCI papers, and one monograph. The SCI citation (without self-citations) is 12,000 times, and 2 papers are Top 1% of highly cited papers. She has been selected into the list of highly cited Chinese scientists in the field of environment and ecology in the Essential Science Indicator of the U.S. Institute of Information Science (ISI) (2014-present), with an h-index of 79 (Web of Science). She was awarded a second prize of National Natural Science (ranked third) and two first prizes of Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Award (ranked fourth and first). Currently, she serves as the Associate Editor of Environmental Research, an international SCI journal journal.