Consulting
Members of the Department are actively involved as consultants to FOEN and other agencies (e.g., expert groups on ecotoxicology, endocrine disruption and nanosafety).
One project that exemplifies the contributions of the Environmental Toxicology Department to expert consulting is the effect-directed study of possible chemical causes of gonad malformations in whitefish from Lake Thun. Assessment of (xeno)estrogens using the yeast estrogen screen (YES) demonstrated that the whitefish are not subject to pressure from (xeno)estrogens. However, extracts of plankton from Lake Thun did show estrogenic properties, which are the subject of on-going investigations. (Gonadal malformations in Whitefish from Lake Thun)
A second project of particular relevance is the development of a mechanism-based test battery for the quantification of toxic potency in the vicinity of sewage treatment plants (Project Micropoll). This test battery was successfully applied to monitor the ability of ozonation to remove micropollutants from the effluent (press release BAFU) Though still on-hand in the Department, this test battery was transferred to the newly founded Ecotox Centre Eawag/EPFL, whose mission it is to transfer promising ecotoxicological research into practice.
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