Interactions between Climate Change and Chemical Pollution : Impacts on Human and Ecological Health

The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss requires novel ways of tackling multiple hazards. We know from chemical risk assessments that exposures do not occur to single chemicals but to cocktails of multiple compounds. To fully understand the multifactorial risks posed to humans and ecology, additional risk factors such as climate change have to be taken into account. 
Climate change can lead to changes in chemical exposures; e.g. changes in agricultural chemical use in response to novel pests or periods or draught; and it can further affect chemical behaviour in the environment (e.g. uptake rates with temperature or changes in chemical degradation). Climate change can also alter human and ecological vulnerability to chemical exposures, for example by intensifying heat stress or changing patterns of food and water use. 
This project will undertake research to better understand the interaction between climate change and chemical pollution in aquatic environments, and their combined impact on biodiversity loss and human health to tackle the triple planetary crisis. The study will assess how exposures to chemicals change in response to climate change by conducting systematic reviews of the existing knowledge. The reviews will be followed by a mixture of fieldwork and laboratory experiments which will address changes in exposures to chemicals and factors such as increased temperature as a consequence of climate change. The outcome of the project will help to identify the drivers of risk and impacts on human and ecological health.