The Environmental Health Sciences Group addresses a range of research issues requiring the application of chemical and physical principles to the study of environmental processes. Ultimately, such processes are relevant to environmental change and/or human health. There are three main research areas:
There are very strong inter-linkages between these areas with much collaborative working. Most members of the group contribute to at least two of the research areas and some to all three. The group has a very strong record of winning competitive funding from research councils as well as funding from government departments, the European Union and private industry.
The group is led by Professor Roy Harrison who also acts at NERC Strategic Theme Leader for Environment, Pollution and Human Health. Within the School, Professor Harrison leads the Division of Environmental Health & Risk Management, a multi-disciplinary research and teaching centre.
The work of the group involves field studies, laboratory experimentation and numerical model development and application. One of our strengths is the ability to integrate all three approaches in tackling complex research problems. The group is especially well equipped with the latest state-of-the-art instrumentation for field measurements, chemical analyses and laboratory studies in the pollution and environmental nanoscience areas.
Research on air pollution processes spans from studies of emissions, through atmospheric transformations to effects on human health. There has been a special focus on airborne particulate matter and we were the first to demonstrate that the nucleation of particles in diluting engine exhaust plumes is the main determinant of particle size distributions in street air. We have also been pioneers within Europe with the application of organic source tracers in understanding the origins of both primary particles and secondary organic aerosols. Numerical modelling work includes studies of pollutant dispersion and atmospheric chemistry within street canyons using CFD and LES methods with a view to linking street-scale processes to urban climate and air quality. Research in atmospheric chemistry includes studies of the interaction of gas phase oxidants with atmospheric aerosol particles, the role of alkenes as a source of atmospheric oxidants and secondary organic aerosol and the photochemistry of chlorine oxides and the role of iodine and chlorine species in marine atmospheric chemistry and polar stratospheric ozone depletion.
Work on pollutant cycling processes focuses primarily on persistent organic pollutants including both legacy pollutants such as PCBs and “new” pollutants such as PBDEs used as fire retardants. We have pioneered the use of chirality as a means of distinguishing sources of PCBs and demonstrating the key role of release from buildings as a continuing source of pollutants in the environment. Another important area of work has been in quantifying human exposure pathways to “new” persistent organic pollutants such as PBDEs. [More information on pollution research]
In addition to the areas which overlap with the pollution research area, there are a number of strong research themes within this topic area. The researchers have a unique international reputation for a broad range of pure and applied atmospheric research including significant knowledge transfer to the international meteorological market place. One of the main areas of applied climate research has been in the area of weather forecasting for transport and a spin-out company dealing with road weather (Entice Technology Limited) was founded in 2002 and sold in 2006. More recently, work has focused on the impact of weather and climate on the built environment. This research covers a number of sectors including transport and energy with the aim of making hard infrastructure more resilient to the future effects of climate change. Work on cultural climatology has focussed on weather derivatives and the new atmospheric paradigm on the use of economic instruments to offset the impacts of weather and climate change on society. A key area of collaboration with the pollution area is that of meteorological and air pollution modelling, especially at the urban and street canyon scale. There are also many collaborative research links with the work on climate modelling in the Geosystems research group. [More information on lcimate and atmosphere research]
There is much current concern over the release of manufactured nanoparticles into the environment. Within the environmental nanoscience research area we have made major advances in the quantification of natural aquatic colloids, nanoscale films and manufactured nanoparticles in the environment, with policy input to Defra in the latter areas. Significant developments have been made in the fractionation and analytical methodologies for natural colloids and nanoparticles. And a variety of advanced techniques are being applied to understand the fate and behaviour of manufactured nanoparticles in aquatic systems. The characterisation and analysis of these nanoparticles is formalised in the national facility FENAC. We are also studying the interactions of manufactured nanoparticles with natural organic macro-molecules such as humic substances which have major impacts on their environmental behaviour. Transport and effects on microbial, and other ecotoxicological, processes of nanoparticles are also under investigation. [More information on environmental nanoscience research]
Research problems in the environmental health sciences are as normally international and consequently we place great emphasis upon carrying out our studies both through international collaboration and fieldwork in the most appropriate locations in the UK and overseas. This greatly enriches the working experience of our researchers as well as leading to some highly influential international publications.
