First Day of Summer School 2: GMOS-Train Human Health Workshop and Project Meeting
Day 1 at "Summer School 2: GMOS-Train - Human Health Workshop and Project Meeting" at IFREMER, Nantes, France, was a dynamic start to this event. Participants engaged in insightful discussions and collaborative sessions, exchanging valuable knowledge gathered during the project.
The day concluded with a delightful reception in the tremendous ambient of Berlin 1989, fostering networking and camaraderie among attendees. The positive energy and engagement set a promising tone for the upcoming two days, packed with engaging talks.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Human Health Workshop and the Project Meeting in Nantes
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming event, "Summer School 2: GMOS-Train - Human Health Workshop and Project Meeting," which will take place at IFREMER, Nantes, from September 18th to 20th, 2023. This event promises to be a valuable opportunity to gather and exchange knowledge in the field of human health.
Event Details:
GMOS-Train project meeting_Nantes_Draft Agenda_4.9.2023
- Date: September 18th - 20th, 2023
- Venue: IFREMER, Nantes
- Zoom Link: Join the Zoom Meeting
- Meeting ID: 878 3906 0315
- Passcode: 319365
Together, let's explore the intersection of genetics, health, and the past, present, and future of GMOS-Train.
How Volcanic Plumes Shape Mercury's Fate
A recent paper, "Observed in-plume gaseous elemental mercury depletion suggests significant mercury scavenging by volcanic aerosols" authored by Alkuin M. Koenig et al., has illuminated the obscure pathways through which mercury journeys within volcanic environments.
Volcanoes have long been known to emit mercury, a potent neurotoxin, into the atmosphere. However, the post-emission behaviour and transformations of mercury in a volcanic plume, an extreme and chemically active environment, remain mostly unknown. Such transformations are important as they determine if mercury is transported globally or deposited regionally. Here we present experimental evidence that, within a volcanic plume, mercury can get efficiently converted into forms that sediment quickly and are washed out by rain. This implies that terrestrial volcanism may directly emit mercury into the atmosphere and indirectly remove it. While this would reduce the atmospheric mercury burden, it would also increase mercury deposition and human exposure in volcanically active regions.
The link to the article on the publisher's site:
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/ea/d3ea00063j
Exploring the Mysteries of Mercury: Outreach Activity for High School Students on Mercury in the Ocean
Alina held a scientific outreach seminar at her former high school. The seminar focused on mercury and its biogeochemical cycle in seawater. Introducing the GMOS Train project and talking spe cifically about her research project within the initiative. The main goal of this seminar was to inspire the next generation about scientific research. With passion and expertise, she engaged the high school students in an informative session about the behavior of mercury in marine environments and its consequences for both aquatic life and human well-being.
As part of the GMOS Train project, Alina's research aimed to better understand how mercury cycles through the marine ecosystem. She shared insights about her work and the efforts made by researchers to obtain and analyze seawater samples. Throughout the seminar, the students were curious, and they actively participated in the discussion.
Managing mercury along the oil and gas value chains - 18 July 2023
The Global Mercury Partnership is pleased to invite you to an online session “Managing mercury along the oil and gas value chains: sharing of experience and best practices” scheduled to be held on Tuesday 18 July 2023, from 1 to 3 pm CEST.
The event will be an opportunity to exchange on existing best practices in managing mercury emissions, releases and waste along the oil and gas value chains; share experiences from countries and relevant stakeholders, including on their practices and some of the challenges they may be facing; and Identify possible next steps for effective implementation of best practices.
The detailed agenda will be made available shortly on the event page.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To participate in the event, please register using the link below.
Mercury Waste Management - Side Event at BRS Convention COPs
Mercury Waste Management Event will take place on Tuesday 9 May 2023 - 13:15-14:45 CEST and it will address the challenges faced by developing countries in managing and disposing of mercury waste in an environmentally sound manner. Speakers will present recent developments on mercury waste including the mercury waste thresholds under the Minamata Convention and the update to the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management under the Basel Convention, and discuss ways to overcome the capacity gap that developing countries face.
This event will take place in a hybrid format, both in-person and virtually. In-person participation is open to the registered participants to the BRS COPs. Online participation is open to all. It will be broadcasted on WebEx.
PROGRAMME
Opening remarks:
- Monika Stankiewicz, Executive Secretary of the Minamata Convention
- Roger Baro, Burkina Faso
- Carlos Martin-Novella, Deputy Executive Secretary of the BRS Conventions
- Felix Wertli, Switzerland
- Misuzu Asari, Global Mercury Partnership
Mercury waste thresholds – report from the expert group under the Minamata Convention
- Eisaku Toda, Secretariat of the Minamata Convention
Technical Guidelines for Environmentally Sound Management
- Kaoru Oka, former member of the Small Intersessional Working Group on mercury waste (online)
Fact sheets on Mercury Waste Management
- Nicolas Humez, UNEP Global Mercury Partnership
Mercury waste management in developing countries – Challenges and Best Practices
- Pierre Hennebert, France (online)
- Roger Baro, Burkina Faso
- Christopher Kanema, Zambia
- Shahriar Hossein, Environment and Social Development Organization
- Rachel Kamande, Global Campaign Lead – Clean Lighting Coalition
Panel discussion Moderated by Eisaku Toda
|
MINAMATA Convention in 2022
The Minamata Convention Progress Report 2022 provides an update on the latest developments under the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which includes the achievements of COP-4, such as the amendment of the Convention to ban eight additional mercury-added products, reducing mercury demand, exposure and waste. The report also highlights the creation of a scientific group that will provide data on the presence and movement of mercury in the environment.
Additionally, the report mentions that over 90% of Parties submitted their first full national reports on the implementation of the Convention, which provides a clear picture of their needs and challenges. It emphasizes the expanding cooperation among the secretariats of Multilateral Environmental Agreements and outlines the linkages with gender, biodiversity, and knowledge management.
The publication also acknowledges that more work needs to be done to fully achieve the Convention's objective. This includes improving monitoring and reporting of mercury emissions, strengthening the capacity of developing countries to implement the Convention, and increasing public awareness of the risks of mercury exposure.
Overall, the Minamata Convention Progress Report 2022 provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made in implementing the Convention in 2022, while also identifying the challenges that need to be addressed to #MakeMercuryHistory.
Metrology training course results
The GMOS-Train Metrology training course (29 – 30 Sept 2022) was hosted virtually by the Jožef Stefan Institute to provide basic concepts and knowledge about measurement uncertainty and traceability in chemical analyses. Dr. Igor Živković and prof. dr. Milena Horvat organized a series of lectures for all early-stage researchers (ESRs) of the Marie Skłodowska Curie ITN so they would be able to calculate the measurement uncertainties of their own mercury analysis in the environment. Following the training course, ESRs had regular video-chat consultations with the lecturers to help them calculate the measurement uncertainties of their analytical methods and to determine the main contribution components of their uncertainties. Their results were presented to an audience of about thirty participants at the GMOS-Train annual meeting (6 – 8 Mar 2023) at the ZMAW in Hamburg.
GMOS-Train winter school on modelling a great success
„The GMOS-TRAIN winter school on modelling (6th Feb – 3rd Mar, 2023) was a great success. The Hereon experts on numerical modeling, Dr. Johannes Bieser and Dr. Martin Ramacher, hosted a four week winter school in Hamburg for eight early stage researchers (ESR) of the Marie Sklodowska Curie ITN. In the first week lectures on basic concepts of numerical modeling were held by the likes of Hans v. Storch and other renown experts in the field. This was followed by a 3 week hackathon, in which the ESRs applied these concepts to numerical modeling projects focusing on their research on mercury in the environment. After the 4 week course, the GMOS-Train annual meeting (6th Mar – 8th Mar 2023) was hosted by Hereon at the ZMAW in Hamburg. There, the ESRs presented their modelling studies with presentations and a poster session to about 30 participants. The highly promising modelling projects that started in the GMOS-TRAIN winter school are now being followed up, used for further research in the ESRs PhD research and prepared for publications.”
Researchers' Night in Ljubljana
We are happy to share with you the photos of the European Researcher Night 2022/23 in which Allwin Mabes Raj (ESR-11) of the GMOS-Train project explained to the visitors about DNA fingerprinting (also called DNA profiling or forensic genetics), a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals or samples by their respective DNA profiles. DNA fingerprinting is a laboratory technique to establish a link between biological evidence and a suspect in a criminal investigation. Allwin also explained the intricacies and uses of developing a nanobiosensor for methylmercury to the visitors, which is his prime objective of the GMOS-Train project.
Venue: Institut “Jožef Stefan”, Reaktorski center, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The theme of the presentation: LEGO MICROBES
Link of the event- https://www.nocmoc.eu/
Event details posted by the official Slovenian governmental website: https://www.gov.si/en/news/2022-09-30-european-researchers-night/
