Sino-Swiss Chemical and Environmental and Health Risk Seminar was Successfully Held

From 2019 November 27 to 29, the 9th Sino-Swiss Conference on Chemicals and Environmental and Health Risks was held in Tongji University, relying on the Sino-Swiss major scientific and technological cooperation project "Chemical Pollution Stress and Risk Research in the Yangtze River Delta Region (CHEMSTRRES)". The conference was jointly hosted by Tongji University and Stockholm University, Sweden. More than 50 experts, scholars and graduate students from over ten universities attended the meeting, including researchers and officers from Stockholm University, Sweden Natural History Museum, Swedish Toxicology Research Center, Örebro University, Swedish Agricultural University, Lund University, Umeå University, Tongji University, Tsinghua University, Yibin College and WWF China. The meeting also invited officers of Ecological Environment Bureau from Shanghai and Jiaxing to participate. The conference witnessed in-depth discussions on three topics: methodology of environmental healt, ecotoxicology, and environmental pollution exposure. A total of 23 representatives gave academic reports. For the international frontiers and future challenges in the field of environmental chemical safety, experts from China and Sweden reached a consensus on the direction of future cooperative research. The conference also introduced the book Challenges of Chemical Pollution in the Yangtze River Delta: Experiences and Enlightenments and some project-related research results. This book was gifted to experts, scholars and social stakeholders in related field.

The cooperation among the School of Environmental Science and Engineering of Tongji University, Stockholm University of Sweden, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the Swedish Toxicology Science Research Center has lasted for 12 years. They have jointly undertaken the many international cooperation projects from Swedish Research Council (VR), such as Chemical Pollution Stress and Risk Research in the Yangtze River Delta Region (CHEMSTRRES). All involved universities and institutes closely communicated with each other. Substantial research results and advancing progress in the areas of chemical exposure, toxicological and health effects, and methodology establishment in the Yangtze River Delta had been discussed, as well as new environmental chemical pollution issues that worth urgent attention in the Yangtze River Delta. The cooperation also nourished a number of high-level international academic journal papers, and the monograph Challenges of Chemical Pollution in the Yangtze River Delta: Experiences and Enlightenments in both Chinese and English. Professor Ake Bergman, Stockholm University of Sweden, was hired as the high-end international expert from the National Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs of Tongji University and the member of the Shanghai Peak Discipline Team, which promoted the development of environmental disciplines and laid a solid foundation for future cooperation.