PFAS substances – water and soil contaminants that will stay in the environment forever and their use is steadily growing. Endocrine disruptors that interfere with the human as well as the animal hormone system, causing various diseases including diabetes, obesity, and male infertility. Also, the by now extreme pollution of the planet by plastics and electronic waste. According to Martin Scheringer, professor of environmental chemistry, scientists are alerting politicians to these dire threats yet their warnings go unheeded.
Collaboration between science and politics is too limited and fragmented, which causes extensive damage to human health as well as the environment, says Martin Scheringer of Recetox, a research centre at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno. He co-wrote an article for the February issue of Science, in which he and his fellow scientists call for the establishment of a global intergovernmental science-policy panel to provide information on the possibilities of reducing the levels of harmful chemicals.
Scientists estimate that in 2017, the exposure to a mere fraction of over 100,000 commonly used chemicals was a contributing factor in over 1.3 million premature deaths.
Read the complete interview HERE
Scientist Luděk Sehnal, a successful applicant for several prestigious scholarships for which he and his family traveled the world, is finishing his work in Germany and plans to return to RECETOX. He wishes to pass on his experience and support the development of excellent science in the Czech Republic.
Although many people imagined Aneta Vrzalová as a medical student, she preferred to study Environment and Health at the RECETOX research center, Faculty of Science, MUNI. And she has never regretted her decision.
