Environment Agency

The context of armed conflict situations presents unique challenges that can compromise the safety and well-being of both affected populations and responders in radiological and nuclear emergencies. The focus of the EU project RRADEW 'Resilience to RADiological Events in Wartime'(2024-2027) is to enhance nuclear Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery (EPR&R) systems by strengthening resilience to potential incidents in the context of war or armed conflict. The project is structured in five work packages focusing on the development of war scenarios (WP1), identification of resilience dimensions and indicators (WP2 and 3), development of decision-support, training materials and recommendations targeting key stakeholders (WP4), and key ethical questions for radiological protection in the context of armed conflicts (WP5). Since its start in 2024 the project has built a war-risk scenario matrix for nuclear facilities, produced a resilience framework that links the Sendai-definition of resilience to radiation emergencies, integrating social, technical and organisational dimensions across the EPR&R system, drafted training modules for deminers and first-responder monitors and produced an ethical matrix highlighting dilemmas such as dignity, autonomy and justice in armed-conflict radiological events. Together, these efforts aim to provide actionable frameworks and recommendations to ensure the safety and well-being of both affected populations and responders in wartime radiological incidents.

Flood hydrology sits at the interface of science, public protection, infrastructure planning, and regulation. It is a broad and interdisciplinary field; in a recent UK survey of users of hydrology only 45 % self-identified as a hydrologist. To ensure society is prepared for increasing hydrological risks, effective communication within this diverse community is essential. Without clear pathways for translation pathway between policy priorities, emerging research and operational needs, critical planning and policy decisions risk being made on outdated assumptions. However, operational decisions are not always able to draw upon the latest research into process understanding or modelling approaches due to multiple barriers. These barriers include uneven access to data and tools, capacity constraints, differences in incentives across sectors and the limited time for relationship building and knowledge translation across different expertise. Here, we present insights from around 60 participants at a “science into practice” workshop hosted at the British Hydrological Society Symposium (University of Oxford, September 2024). The workshop was designed as a sector-spanning exercise between researchers, consultants, regulators, and practioners working on flood hydrology across the UK. Across sectors, participants converged on six priority themes: (1) working together, (2) funding and responsibilities, (3) skills and training, (4) data, (5) methods, and (6) accreditation and usability. We reflect on how these themes provided insights into the challenges and opportunities for science communication, knowledge translation and collaboration, and why such activities are often undervalued despite their critical role for improving flood-risk decisions. We conclude with practical recommendations for improving “science into practice” pathways in flood hydrology with more inclusive cross-sector communication aligned with the goals of the co-developed 25-year UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap. These lessons learned are transferable to other areas of environmental risk where effective communication and collaboration are crucial for delivering societal and environmental benefits.

Bioaerosols are ubiquitous airborne microorganisms comprised of bacteria, fungi, pollen, virus and their constituents. Fungi have been associated with negative health effects ranging in severity from allergic reactions to asthma and serious infection, where susceptible individuals are at greater risk of life-threatening health outcomes resulting from exposure. While airborne fungi are abundant, they are poorly characterized due to the low temporal resolution of traditional offline sampling methods, limiting our understanding of key emission drivers in critical micro-environments and their impacts on air quality.There is a critical need to better characterize background fungal aerosol concentrations to build baselines to explore exposure assessment. Here we investigate the utility of emerging real-time detection methods in conjunction with offline sampling during a two-week pilot study to characterize the outdoor concentrations of key aeroallergenic fungi at high time resolution.A Multiparameter Bioaerosol Spectrometer (MBS) was deployed at UKHSA Chilton alongside a Burkard sampler during summer 2022, capturing the extreme European-wide heatwave which occurred 9-15th of August; The MBS is a biofluorescence spectrometer that classifies and quantifies bioaerosols on a single particle basis via their autofluorescent signatures, allowing for fungal aerosol concentrations to be derived at 5-minute time resolution; Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was performed on daily integrated Burkard samples to provide broader fungal compositional context. Meteorological data was also recorded.Clear diurnal behaviour in Cladosporium- and Penicillium-like aerosol was observed with the MBS, with maximums occurring in the late afternoon and early morning respectively. These characteristic diurnal emission features would not be evident from sample integrations typical of offline sampling.Splitting the MBS real-time data into pre-heatwave and heatwave periods revealed that during heatwave conditions the environment was too hot and dry for the typical day time sporulation and emission of Cladosporium to occur, where the emission was delayed until the early morning when temperatures dropped and subsequently critical humidity levels had recovered; The typical early morning release of Penicillium was largely unaffected by the heatwave, however, daytime concentrations dropped to zero during the hottest and driest periods.Analysis of the daily NGS data showed that the abundance of key species such as Alternaria and Cladosporium were enhanced during the heatwave, while Aureobasidium and Epicoccum are suppressed by heatwave conditions in our observations.We demonstrate the utility of a complimentary real-time and offline NGS dual approach to gain deeper insights into fungal spore emissions. This allowed us for the first time to investigate the impacts of heatwave conditions on the emissions of key aeroallergenic species, providing insight into how diurnal emissions may be impacted by a warming climate. We also suggest that this approach shows promise for routine fungi monitoring to assess impacts on public health.

Abstract. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are recognised as atmospheric contaminants, yet processes governing their aerosol formation, size distribution, and interactions with atmospheric particle surfaces remain unknown. We investigated aerosolisation and size-resolved behaviour of 25 PFAS covering short-, medium-, and long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA), perfluoroalkane sulfonates, fluorotelomer sulfonates and emerging alternatives. Experiments were conducted under controlled chamber conditions using a water–organic solvent system, in the absence/presence of the model bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens seed to investigate the potential influence of microbial presence on PFAS behaviour. Most PFAS exhibited unimodal mass–size distributions peaking at 0.3 µm, indicating dominant association with the fine mode. Sulfonated PFAS showed broadly similar aerosol-phase concentrations regardless of carbon-chain length, whereas PFCA displayed increasing aerosolisation with chain length. Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) showed additional ultrafine enrichment, 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTS) and sodium 4,8-dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoate (NaDONA) exhibited broader size profiles, suggesting compound-specific effects linked to volatility and interfacial behaviour. Pseudomonas fluorescens seed did not enhance PFAS aerosol concentrations through condensation or heterogeneous uptake onto bacterial particles or shift in modal diameters, and no enrichment was observed at bacterial size mode, indicating limited PFAS–bioaerosol association under the tested conditions. Multiple-Path Particle Dosimetry (MPPD) modelling based on the measured size distributions predicted substantial deposition of the aerosol-bound PFAS in the pulmonary region, particularly for compounds enriched in ultrafine particles. Our findings indicate that PFAS aerosol behaviour in mixed-solvent systems is controlled primarily by physical droplet generation and evaporation, with implications for airborne transport and inhalation exposure from contaminated aqueous sources.

Antifungal resistance (AFR) is an emerging threat. Understanding the concentrations at which antifungals select for resistance is critical for guiding policy to minimise risks. This study aimed to determine predicted no effect concentrations for resistance (PNECRs) for antifungals in water and soil. PNECRs for water (PNECRswater) were derived from species sensitivity distributions fitted using a Maximum Likelihood Estimation approach to estimate the lower 5th percentile Hazard Concentrations (HC5s) from censored species/compound level MIC data and applying a 10-fold assessment factor. PNECRswater ranged from 5.67x10-4 (clotrimazole) to 7.94µg/L (nystatin). PNECRs derived using standard methodologies that do not account for censoring are always higher, and therefore less conservative for environmental protection, than when considering censoring. PNECRs for soil (PNECRssoil) were derived by applying soil partitioning coefficients to PNECRswater for each antifungal, thereby providing an estimate for the bulk soil concentration needed to achieve the PNECRwater in soil pore water. These ranged from 2.26x10-6 (voriconazole) to 2.16mg/kg (nystatin). Risk quotients were generated from measured environmental concentrations, and 6.54% for water (n=200) and 12.5% for soil (n=1) were over 1, suggesting selection for AFR could be occurring. This type of data generation and analyses will inform discussions about targeted mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of selection for AFR, however, PNECR estimations can be improved with increased data for certain compounds, particularly agricultural fungicides. Preventing an increase in resistance is critical for reducing the risk posed to human health from exposure to environmental AFR.

Abstract Acoustic telemetry is a powerful tool for understanding spatial and temporal fish movements in complex freshwater systems but determining appropriate sample sizes for measuring individual variability in movement metrics is challenging. Here, the movements of 170 common bream Abramis brama were measured over two years in the highly connected River Bure wetland system, eastern England. Analyses of seasonal and spatial movement patterns revealed higher movement metrics in winter versus summer, with the extent of movements measured enabled by the high lateral connectivity of this wetland system, with bream often occupying the numerous off-channel lentic habitats present. Power analyses were then applied to this relatively large dataset to assess how changes in tagged fish number influenced the individual variability in the movement metrics. Although retaining 95% of the movement variability required relatively large samples, using 60 individuals retained 90% of individual variability, with only 20 fish needed to retain 80%. These results emphasise the importance of high connectivity in wetlands to enable potadromous fish to access key functional habitats in all seasons. It also reveals relatively small sample sizes in acoustic telemetry can capture much of the movement variability measured across larger numbers of tagged fish.

Cynomolgus macaques, a species of Old World primate native to southeastern and eastern Asia and the island of Mauritius, are one of the most important nonhuman primate models for infectious disease. Although the closely related rhesus macaque is classified into subspecies based on geographic origin, no such subdivision exists for cynomolgus macaques, and they continue to be used interchangeably in infectious disease research, reducing the comparability of data produced from these studies. Research into the population genetics of cynomolgus macaques has found significant differences between macaques native to different areas, including their genetic diversity, with macaques from insular populations such as Mauritius and the Philippines exhibiting highly restricted heterozygosity compared to mainland populations native to Indonesia or Cambodia. In the context of infectious disease studies, research into pathogens, including Ebola virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis have found differences in study outcomes, survival times, and immune cell responses between different populations of macaques. This review provides an overview of the differences between cynomolgus macaque populations in the context of genetic diversity, and in response to infection, and highlights the need for clear reporting of geographic origin of primates used in research. This will improve data comparison between studies and help to further refine this important animal model.

Despite the existing hybrid immunity, a sharp increase in SARS-CoV-2 reinfections was observed worldwide following Omicron variant emergence. We investigated whether the first infecting variant indelibly shapes serological responses against Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) reinfection. Participants with a sequence-confirmed Alpha (n = 23) or Delta (n = 10) first infection before third vaccine dose (V3) that subsequently had a BA.1 or BA.2 reinfection were selected. Sera were tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (anti-S) and live virus microneutralisation (LV-N) against Ancestral, Alpha, Delta, Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. Antibody responses and waning post-V3 were compared by first infection variant using mixed-effect models, as well as inferred titres days before reinfections. Individual's neutralisation responses were compared 12 weeks post-V3, among those with Alpha and Delta primary infection. After V3, those with Delta first infection had higher LV-N Omicron BA.1 titres (fold difference (FD) = 2.7, p = 0.05) compared to Alpha primary infection. Participants with Delta first infection presented higher LV-N BA.1 (FD = 1.89, p = 0.004) and LV-N BA.2 (FD = 2.06, p = 0.001) titres pre-Omicron reinfections. Individuals' neutralisation responses against Ancestral were higher than any other subsequent variants, regardless of first infection variant. A previous Delta SARS-CoV-2 infection induced a higher serological response against a subsequent Omicron infection when compared to Alpha first infections.

Significant progress has been made in reducing the tuberculosis (TB) rate in England over the last decade. South West England has a low incidence of TB, but over a third of people with pulmonary TB (pTB) had a treatment delay of over four months in 2020, higher than the England average. This study aimed to identify the exposures associated with presentation and healthcare delays in receiving pTB treatment in the South West of England between 2015 and 2020. This retrospective cohort study included all confirmed persons with TB resident in South West England, receiving treatment between 2015 and 2020. Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards ratios were produced for the outcome measures of presentation and healthcare delays for persons with pTB. Multivariable regression models were fitted using a forward, stepwise procedure. Sensitivity analyses excluded treatment delays over two years and the year 2020. Data were analysed using Stata 17. Between 2015 and 2020 there were 812 persons with pTB among South West residents. Median treatment delays were 35 days for presentation and 25 days for healthcare delay. Multivariable analysis identified that longer presentation delays were associated with being aged 35–50 or over 80 years old. Longer healthcare delays were associated with increasing age (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98–0.99), being employed (HR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.52–0.97) and people currently or historically deprived of their liberty and accommodated by a prison (HR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.20–0.54). Shorter healthcare delays were associated with sputum smear positivity (HR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.16–2.06) and smoking (HR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.22–2.22). Delays between symptom onset and TB treatment remain an important public health problem in the region. Factors have been identified that can be investigated to reduce presentation and healthcare delays. Detailed analyses were valuable in disaggregating key populations. Further mixed-methods research would be warranted to further understand these associations.