SETAC Latin America Calling for Webinars to Promote the Global Horizon Scanning Project

SETAC Latin America is calling for researchers who are interested in sharing their experience and expertise about trend topics identified in the Global Horizon Scanning and Prioritization Project (GHSP). The main goal is to create better understanding and a forum to address these critical questions that may support the development of long-term strategic research efforts to achieve environmental sustainability.

In order to reach our target community, we invite you to submit a webinar proposal to disseminate your work by presenting slides or videos on the SETAC YouTube account, where your material can be shared freely and reach a broad audience.

GHSP is a SETAC initiative that aims to collect and prioritize the most important future environmental quality research questions as recognized by scientists and engineers from around the world. In 2015, a GHSP workshop was held in Buenos Aires, and as a result, 100 questions were received from SETAC members and other researchers and scientists as environmental priority needs to be addressed in the region. These questions were examined, classified and organized, and now the top 20 questions are considered as part of a long-term strategic research plan in Latin America. Here are the identified topics:

Environmental Chemistry

• Adsorption/release of toxic compounds from plastic wastes
• Impacts of pharmaceuticals in aquatic ecosystems
• Quality criteria and limits for environmental legislation
• Quantification of contaminant metabolites and breakdown products in abiotic and biotic matrices

Ecotoxicology

• Climate change influence on fate and effects of pollutants
• Extrapolation of results from regulatory single species toxicity test to local taxa and scenarios
• Understanding the complexity of pesticide toxicology in ecosystems
• Laboratory and field methods and approaches to address ecological complexity 

Health, CECs and Environment

• Impacts of nanomaterials on ecosystems and human health
• Algal toxins production and risk for human health 

Risk Assessment

• Characterization of individual and combined risks of diffuse chemical contaminants
• Development and refinement of tools for sustainable production and use of chemicals
• Risks characterization of pulp mills effluents for human and the environment 

Environmental Management and Policy

• Continuous improvement of the maximum limits of toxicity for agriculture, and domestic and industrial effluents, while maintaining ecosystem services
• Current environmental regulations effectiveness and its implementation and enforcement in Latin America
• Standardization and harmonization across Latin American countries
• Effectiveness of protected areas to safeguard biodiversity from pollutants
• Risk management improvement for solid wastes

Spotlight on Latin America

• Sensitivity information of regional species for better prediction of impacts on local ecosystems
• Impact evaluation of natural resources extraction
• Tools for characterizing and classifying industrial and residential effluents 

If you are interested in contributing, please contact Luciane Maranho at lmaranho@gmail.com or Ana Cione at ana.cione@syngenta.com. 

Some videos from the SETAC Latin America webinar series are already available:

• Impacts of Pharmaceuticals in Aquatic Ecosystems
• Latin America Ecotoxicology Effluents Regulation: Status, Equalization and Progressive Goals

Related links:

• Furley et al. (2018). Toward sustainable environmental quality: Identifying priority research questions for Latin America. Integr Environ Assess Manag, 14: 344-357. 
  https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.2023