EU initiates project to study flame retardant pollution

Citing concern about suspected threats to the health of humans and wildlife, the European Union’s Marie Curie European Industrial Doctorate program has awarded a Euro 1.2 million research grant to four early-stage researchers from Asia, Australia and Europe to study the environmental effects of one of the most common types of flame retardants.
 
The four-year grant, entitled ‘Elucidating sources and pathways of environmental contamination with brominated persistent organic chemicals using advanced instrumental tools (ELUTE)’, will allow researchers to pursue individual projects in the laboratory of Prof Stuart Harrad at the University of Birmingham, UK, and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Center of Excellence in Bremen, Germany.
 
The European Union bans or restricts use of certain brominated flame retardants (BFRs), but their persistence in the environment causes concern about risks to public health, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The ELUTE project’s main research goal is to increase understanding of the environmental fate and behaviour of brominated persistent organic chemicals, and how best one can deploy recent advances in analytical instrumentation to do so.
 
“A particularly novel feature of ELUTE is its strategy to tackle its research objectives using the dual perspectives of industry and academia, with additional input from the policy-making sector to ensure that its trainees will be able to follow the research thread all the way from bench to science policy,” said Professor Harrad.
 
Kyle D’Silva, Product Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Director of Research for ELUTE, said, “We are very pleased to be a partner in this important environmental research. It aligns perfectly with our corporate mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.”