Below are a few thought-starter questions around the material in the module. You may want to talk through these questions with friends, colleagues and your lecturers:
If you had £1 million to address chemical pollution in the environment, how would you invest it?
Beyond technological advancement, what deeper societal or systemic factors contribute to chemical pollution?
If a single ubiquitous pollutant can cause every water body to fail chemical status, does the current “one out, all out” framework still help us identify where environmental improvements are happening—or could it hide progress and important local risks?
The environment is changing, human populations are growing and becoming more urbanised. Knowing what you do about pharmaceuticals in the environment now, what are going to be the big research challenges over the next 20 years?
How do you think non targeted analytical approaches could fit into regulatory monitoring systems for chemicals in the environment?
What parts of the analysis could you change to increase the detectable chemical space?