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Pollution Dynamics

Since the Second World War, and especially since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, there has been growing concern about contamination of the environment with human-made chemicals from pesticides such as DDT to the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) known as the “forever chemicals”.

Water droplet
Fluorochemicals (PFAS) are extensively used for their water- and stain repellency. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In this course, you will learn about “pollutant dynamics”, which is the way pollutants (such as DDT, PFAS and many more) move from emission sources to the tissues of organisms where they can cause toxic effects. You will learn where pollutants come from (their sources and emissions), where pollutants go (their partitioning, transport and reaction processes), and who gets exposed and how (wildlife and human exposure pathways).

Topics covered include:

  • Chemical properties of pollutants
  • Equilibrium environmental partitioning of pollutants
  • Pollutant transport processes
  • Environmental reaction processes of pollutants
  • Simple modelling tools, including the fugacity concept
  • Bioaccumulation in aquatic and terrestrial organisms of pollutants
  • Human exposure pathways of pollutants

Selected reading

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