SETAC AU & ACTRA Conference 2025
Next week, SETAC AU and the Australian College of Toxicology & Risk Assessment (ACTRA) are hosting the 2025 conference in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand (25-28 August 2025). The theme of the conference is:
"Building a lasting legacy: Our choice, their future".
The conference webpage says “Rooted in an understanding of the impacts of chemicals and emerging challenges, this conference will explore how diverse knowledge systems, collaborations, and innovative educational and engagement strategies can secure a better outlook for generations to come. Scientists, knowledge keepers, practitioners, and end-users from diverse fields will share their research, insights and strategies, fostering collaborations for improved environmental outcomes.”
So in that context, we are sponsoring the event because at HazEL, we want people to understand the impact of chemicals across all our daily activities, both the good and the bad, and we want to promote an understanding of emerging issues.
Our CEO and Founder, Kate Bromfield, is chairing the session on Emerging Contaminants, appropriate given our proprierty model for identifying chemcials of emerging concern. The session will be held in Chancellor Rm 1 (Lv 16) on Wednesday 27 August at 11am, and features some fantastic talks on the subject. If you can come along, you’ll hear John Bruning, from the University of Adelaide, talking about “A structural basis for the activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)”, Carolyn Sonter, from the University of New England, asking “Are PFAS yet another threat to bees?”, Adele Romagnano, from RMIT, and her talk on “Small Creatures, Big Contaminants: PFAS uptake in macroinvertebrates”, Courtney Milner, from Agilent Technologies, talking about “Untargeted Screening of Environmental Samples – Identifying Emerging Pollutants”, Pulasthi Serasinghe, from RMIT Aquest, talking about “Combining Passive Sampling and HRMS for Scalable Micropollutant Monitoring Frameworks”, and Chris Fouracre, from Agilent, presenting “A Hybrid Multisampler with Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer to Solve Solvent Effect in PFCAs and its Precursor FTOHs Analysis”.
This is a packed session, which is not surprising, given the global focus on chemicals of emerging concern. How we identify them and their effects to build a positive legacy is a key issue of the times.