Environmental Science and Safe-by-Design

Content

Mankind is currently operating well outside the safe operating space for humanity: six of the nice planetary boundaries have been crossed. This includes the planet boundary ‘novel entities’, that is, human-made chemicals and materials. The rate at which we produce novel entities increases as does the rate of release, both in terms of volume and number. This happens without us knowing what the effect is of these novel entities on the environment or on human health. In the past we have often been unpleasantly surprised by the detrimental impact chemicals and materials can have on the environment and our health. Examples include asbestos, PFAS, DDT, microplastics, BPA, and others. In order to transition to a safer and more sustainable palette of chemicals and materials, we need to do things differently, addressing the following main questions:
1) How do we know and evaluate the actual impact of a chemical or material on the environment or human health? What scientific approaches and analytical methods do we have to study the environment and potential soluions for environmental problems – addressing these questions is at the heart of the interdisciplinary field ‘environmental science’.
2) Once detected, how do we avoid environmental risks to ensure a clean, healthy and safe living environment? Working towards a zero-pollution/toxic-free environment is a key policy goal of the European Green Deal and the related EU Chemicals Strategy to Sustainability.
3) How do we (re)design chemicals and materials, up from the molecular level, so that they are safe(r) and (more) sustainable? Central to this transition is the Safe-and-Sustainable By Design (SSbD) framework, a concept that aims to integrate safety, circularity and functionality, while minimizing the life cycle environmental footprint of a chemical or material.

This course offers an introduction to the environmental science disciplines needed for such an assessment and introduce the concepts and frameworks of SSbD, focusing on the chemistry involved, but also on the broader knowlegde needed. More in particular the course will cover/include:

Environmental Science:

• Introduction to environmental science
• Introduction to environmental analysis
• Introduction to general toxicology, ecotoxicology and risk assessment, ‘green’ toxicology
• Modeling of chemical properties and fate; chemical space analysis

Safe-and-Sustainable By Design:

• Regulatory frameworks for chemicals and materials and developments in policy, law, etc.
• The concept, implementation and ethical aspects of SSbD, essential use
• Chemistry considerations for (molecular) (re)design of chemicals and materials
• SSbD serious game and application of SSbD to industry case studies