Analytical and Environmental Chemistry

Course manual 2023/2024

Course content

This course offers an introduction to the chemistry and toxicology of chemical environmental pollution, one of the hallmarks of the Anthropocene.  Topics include:

• Techniques to detect and quantify chemical pollutants in soil, sediment, water and biota
• Sources and emissions
• Transport and distribution
• Partitioning of chemicals between environmental compartments (water, air, soil, biota)
• Bioaccumulation, biotransformation in living organisms and (bio)degradation processes
• Adverse effects, bioassays and effect directed analysis
• Environmental risk assessment of chemicals

This course is a continuation of the second year course Analytische chemie en bioanalyse.

Background: Chemical pollution is dispersed throughout our environment, including food chains and human bodies, making it a problem of global proportions. But a solvable problem. It may be surprising but most of the >100,000 chemicals synthesized in the past 70 years have not undergone rigorous safety testing before entering the marketplace, and many of these are high production volume chemicals. Past lessons with e.g. dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) showed us that chemicals with economic or societal benefits can have serious negative consequences for public health, the environment as well as the economy. After decades of research on an often chemical-by-chemical basis, science has been revealing how certain chemicals act as developmental neurotoxicants, endocrine disruptors, genotoxicants or immunotoxicants. And this knowledge is powerful. Such research is instrumental in evidence-based, risk-based policy making that phased out many persistent organic pollutants to date. Cutting edge analytical environmental chemistry is critical for first signaling and then quantifying ‘emerging’ chemical pollutants in the environment, such as nanomaterials, psychoactive pharmaceuticals and microplastics. Without analytical data, there’s no story to tell. Understanding the toxicity of the chemicals to gives meaning to the exposure concentrations measured in the laboratory. These data are essential input to environmental (or human health) risk assessments, which are in turn used to design policy and regulations. The latter pave the way for elimination of pollution sources and the stimulation of innovations that act to prevent pollution, improving the quality of the living environment for all.

Study materials

Literature

• Free online textbook available via this link:  https://maken.wikiwijs.nl/147644/Environmental_Toxicology__an_open_online_textbook (Links to an external site.)

• R.P. Schwarzenbach, P.M. Gschwend & D.M. Imboden, Environmental Organic Chemistry, Third Edition, Wiley, 2017, ISBN 978-1-118-76723-8 (suggested for fans of environmental organic chemistry)

Objectives

• The student is able to recognize key pollutants, their sources, their distribution and fate in the environment.
• The student is able to describe contemporary approaches to determine environmental pollutants in relevant environmental compartments.
• The student is able to interpret quantitative information on the effects of pollutants on organisms.
• The student is able to assess the environmental risks of chemicals.
• The student is able to demonstrate the role of systems thinking in environmental chemistry problem-solving.
• The student is able to formulate the environmental risk of a chemical in a report and an oral presentation.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar
• Self-study
• Presentation/symposium
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis

This course consists mainly of lectures (6 hours a week) with a working group devoted to exercises using partitioning coefficients to calculate the distribution of chemicals between environmental compartments. The course includes an assignment and  an oral presentation of the results of this assignment in a written report and an oral presentation.  Several hours a day self-study.

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Active participation is expected of each student in the course for which he is registered.
• If a student cannot attend an obligatory part of a programme's component due to circumstances beyond his control, he must report in writing to the teacher in question as soon as possible. The teacher, if necessary after consulting the study adviser, may decide to issue the student a replacing assignment.
• It is not allowed to miss obligatory parts of the programme's component if there is no case of circumstances beyond one's control.
• In case of participating qualitatively or quantitatively insufficiently, the examiner can expel a student from further participation in the programme's component or a part of that component. Conditions for sufficient participation are fixed in advance in the study guide and/or on Canvas.

Assessment

The final grade is calculated from the grade of the exam (67%), assignment report (prepared in pairs) (25%), and oral presentation (given in pairs) (8%). The minimum grade for the exam has to be 5.0. The minimum grade for the report has to be a 6.0. If resubmission of the report is needed a maximum grade of 6.0 will be assigned.

Assignments

Assignment

The assignment consists of an independent assessment of the environmental risks of a chemical based on information
retrieved from the literature. The assessment should include the following information on the selected chemical:
• Sources and emissions
• Most relevant environmental compartment
• Methods to analyse the chemical in this compartment
• Predicted or measured concentrations in this compartment
• Toxicity for organisms in this compartment
• Risks for organisms in this compartment based on a comparison of concentration and toxicity
Results and conclusions of the assessment are reported in written report and an oral presentation.

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

Additional information

Aanbevolen voorkennis: Analytische chemie en bioanalyse

Contact information

Coordinator

• Ike van der Veen

Docenten

• dr. I van der Veen
• dr. S. Brandsma
• dr. F. Béen
• dr. S. Hughes
• dr. M. Margalef
• prof. dr. A. van Wezel
• prof. dr. P. Leonards