Environmental Chemistry

Course manual 2023/2024

Course content

In this course students will learn fundamentals of environmental chemistry, more specifically the major sources and emission pathways of chemical pollutants, the mechanisms governing their transport and fate in different environmental compartments (with a focus on organic pollutants) as well as approaches to chemical risk assessment and management. Students will learn about the different classes of chemical pollutants and how their environmental behavior is driven by their underlying chemical structure and properties.

Topics include transport and distribution processes, and physico/biochemical reactions of compounds in the environment; bioavailability, bioaccumulation and degradation of chemicals; monitoring and non-target screening, prediction and fate modelling in environmental compartments; structure property/activity relationships; risk assessment and regulation.

The course Environmental Chemistry will consist of lecture, exercises and computer practicals, self-study modules, a group project and a final exam. Lecturers are Dr. Antonia Praetorius, Prof. Annemarie van Wezel, Dr. Thomas ter Laak and Dr. Saer Samanipour. Three teaching assistants will support the course by assisting during the exercises and group work.  

Study materials

Literature

• Schwarzenbach et al., 'Environmental Organic Chemistry', 3rd Ed., 2017 John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-76723-8, for detailed background reading and training questions

• Environmental Toxicology, an open online textbook

Practical training material

• exercises on Canvas, publications (pdf)

Other

• handouts (ppt)

Objectives

• Predict environmental behavior from key physico-chemical properties of organic chemicals and environmental conditions.
• Identify and predict abiotic and biotic transformation processes in the environment.
• Model distribution of organic pollutants between different environmental compartments (modeling exposure) using Level I to III fugacity models.
• Apply and interpret the results of existing environmental fate models to predict environmental concentrations of organic chemicals different environments.
• Gain an overview of analytical strategies to identify legacy and emerging contaminants in environmental matrices.
• Explain the different measures of chemical toxicity and the relation between bioavailability, uptake and effect.
• Explain the goals and functioning of main chemical regulations in Europe (REACH, product-specific regulations, etc.).
• Apply emission, fate, exposure assessment and hazard assessment (all the above) to perform a chemical risk assessment.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Seminar
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study

Lectures provide the basic knowledge to gain an understanding of the theory of environmental processes. Exercises and computer practicals will be used to apply and practice the material. Self-study materials will be provided deepen the knowledge about specific contaminants (or group of contaminants) each week.

Short weekly quizzes (online via Canvas) will be used to test the understanding of the self-study material. 

A group project will be performed in parallel to the lectures, in which students will apply the knowledge acquired in class to build up a risk assessment dossier for a chemical. The work will be presented in form a poster/infographic, which will be peer-reviewed by other students prior to submitting a final version and presented to the class in a short presentation. 

The weekly computer practical will accompany the course to visualize the  impact of different transformation and transport processes on chemical fate in a simplified ("unit world") environment and demonstrate how multimedia environmental fate models are used in chemical exposure and risk assessment. Demonstrations will be used to show how to use online tools for substance property retrieval and/or structure identification. No previous coding/modelling experience required. 

Learning activities

Attendance

This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (TER part B).

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendance and participation is  highly recommended during all lectures, exercises and computer practicals. 

Students who are not able to attend the exercises/computer practicals due to illness (or other valid reasons) are expected to inform the course coordinator and will be requested to submit the exercises via Canvas within 1 week of missed session. Lectures are not recorded. In case of absence, the material has to be studied independently via the lecture slides provided via Canvas (and with the help of fellow group members).

The weekly short quizzes can be taken independently online via Canvas during the available time. The 5 best quizzes (out of 6) count towards the grade, so 1 quiz can be missed unexcused. 

It is required that the groups meet frequently to advance the group work. Teaching assistants and lecturers will be present to assist with the group project during the Werkcolleges on Thursday afternoons and it is highly recommended that the groups work together during this time. Each group has to check in with the TAs/lecturers once during the Thursday Werkcolleges. 

Assessment

The final grade of the course is based on the results of the quizzes (10%), the group project (40%) as well as the final exam (50%). 

The quizzes are published on Canvas during the first 3 weeks of the course (2 quizzes published on Wednesdays, which have to be completed  by Friday (23:59)). The average of the outcomes of the 5 best (out of 6) quizzes will make up the grade. One quiz can be missed unexcused. 

The group projects will be assessed based on the group poster and short presentation. A common grade will be given per group.

The final exam will take place in the digital environment SOWISO on January 30th. A resit will be held on April 2nd. More details about the exam and permitted material will be provided at least one week prior to the exam date. A sample exam using the digital exam environment will be made available for the students to familiarize themselves with the platform in advance. 

The resit exam can be used to replace the grade of the final exam. The final grade after retake will be calculated as follows: resit exam 50%, group project 40% and quizzes 10%.

Assignments

Group project

• Students will be assigned to groups during the first class and work on the project over several weeks. As final outcomes of the group work the students will prepare and present a poster/infographic. The overall grade for the group project makes up 40% of the final course grade. 

Exercises

• Exercises covering the course material will be made available via Canvas every Monday and discussed during Monday's Werkcolleges. Exercises are not graded and do not have to be handed in.  

  Same goes for the exercises accompanying the computer practicals.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. A. Praetorius

Staff

• dr. T.L. ter Laak
• dr. S. Samanipour
• prof. dr. Annemarie van Wezel

Teaching assistants

• Maria Hayder
• Marianne Seijo