Metals Environmental Research Consortium in China (MERC)

Background

Trace metal research in China has a longstanding history, and covers a variety of subject areas and environmental medium, including soil, water and air. Many of these researches have roots in geochemistry and environmental sciences. It is important to realize that modern environmental science starts from metal pollution, in this case, mercury, as a result of Minamata Disease in the 1950’s. Over the past few decades, however, research on metals in China has been surpassed by research on organic pollutants (i.e. Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs). Researchers on POPs now have their network in China. Our observations for the ‘decline’ of environmental metal research in China are at least due to a few reasons: 1). POPs are more successful in raising the attention of publics and funding agencies due to their global transport and concern, whereas metal pollution is more likely recognized as a local issue (or hot spots); 2). Many people have perceptions that metal researches are rather traditional and involve only with conventional analytical measurements, and it is difficult to make progress in fundamental science; 3). There have been very few well organized efforts at the national levels, and researchers are not effectively communicating with each other.

For the first issue, there are good examples of widespread metal pollutions throughout China, including water, soil and air pollution. The health impacts of metals are also well known (e.g., As, Hg, Cd, Pb). These problems are at least as important as organic pollution, but at the moment we lack high profiles and flagships for metal pollution in China. For the second issue, metals are indeed far more complicated than the organic pollutants (which can be simply predicted by their Kow) in terms of their chemistry (speciation) and biology. In fact, it has been long recognized that metal research is more interesting in fundamental science than organic pollutant research. Presentations at the Annual Meetings of Society for Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology (SETAC) typically contain equal weights of metals and organic pollutants, yet there are only a few metals as compared with the vast numbers of different organic pollutants. The formation of Metals Environmental Research Consortium in China (MERC) will help solve the third issue on metal research.

Mission of the Consortium

1.      To promote environmental metal research in China;

2.      To facilitate research collaboration among researchers;

3.      To coordinate large scale research effort on metals in China;

4.      To help governments in formulating environmental control policy and remediating metal pollution in China.

Composition of the consortium

We will seek about 15-20 scientists in China who are actively involving in environmental metal research (the initial list of people is attached).

Meeting information

Logistics:

1.      Time: March 1 (whole day) and March 2 (am).

2.      Hotel: Jianwen Building, Xiamen University (take a taxi from the Xiamen Airport and tell the driver that you are going to Xiamen Univ, the Yifu Building or hotel, the cost will be around 50 RMB). Hotel: $304 per night (including the breakfast).

3.      Food: Feb. 28: We will have dinner at around 630 pm in the Yifu Building (next to the hotel), please ask for names such as Wang Wenxiong or Ke Caihuan.

March 1: Breakfast at Yifu Building (including in the lodging); Dinner hosted by the State Key Lab of Marine Environmental Science.

March 2: breakfast at Yifu Building. Departure in the afternoon.

Meeting place
B-206, Zeng Cheng Kui Building (College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, near the sea). It takes about 10 min from Yifu Building to College of Marine and Environmental Sciences).

Tentative program:

March 1:     9 am--Presentation of 6 people (soil)

2 pm—presentation of 6 people (water)

Each presentation will last for 30 min, including the 5 min discussion. Please give an overview of your own research programs. At this stage, it is more important to let everybody know your research programs instead of detailed results. Of course, you may need to highlight some of the main novel results of your study.

March 2:     9 am-- Roundtable discussions:

1.      Key metal pollution in China

2.      Research areas needed to be expanded

3.      What are the high impacted areas in metal research (at the international stage).

4.      How should we develop collaboration

5.      Future actions