Environmental Risk Assessment of Biocides

Jan Achtenhagen holds a PhD in soil science and a master’s degree in environmental science. He joined knoell Germany more than 7 years ago and is an expert for the environmental exposure and risk assessment of biocides.

Michael Burkhardt is an Environmental Scientist with a Master in geoscience and PhD in agronomy. He is currently a Professor at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences and the Head of their UMTEC Institute. He has been working in the area of pollutants (pesticides, biocides, nanomaterials) released to aquatic systems for more than 15 years. His prime research interests are source-control and end-of-pipe measures to reduce environmental impact.

Rosalinda Gioia is an internationally recognised Expert on Ecotoxicology and is highly experienced in understanding chemical regulations. She came to Yordas after several years leading the Chemical Assessment team at the UK Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS). At Yordas Group Rosalinda leads the science team and project manages REACH Lead Registrations and Biocides active substance approval and product authorisation dossiers. She also provides technical leadership and advice relating to the environmental fate of chemicals, persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity (PBT) and risk assessments in aquatic environments.

Maike Habekost’s PhD work was related to plant biodiversity. At BASF, she is responsible for the ecotoxicological assessment of plant protection products and biocides. From 2014 till late 2016, she worked in the US where she supported US registrations with her ecotoxicological knowledge.

Michael Hüben has been researcher and head of laboratory at Fraunhofer IME since 2009. HIs main fields of work are fate and metabolism of chemicals in the environment. In the regulatory context this includes design of tailor-made approaches for testing of chemicals and test guideline evaluation.

Michael Klein joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) in 1987 after finishing his degree in Chemistry and retired in August 2022. As a member of various EU-FOCUS working groups he was involved in developing fate guidelines related to pesticides.

Aiga Latsone has been working in ECHA’s Biocidal Products unit since 2021. Currently she is an Environmental Expert and the Deputy Chair of the Environment Working Group of the Biocidal Product Committee (BPC). She has previously been involved in research and teaching related to environmental fate of nanomaterials and microplastics, as well as regulatory aspects related to environmental risk assessment and sustainability.

Adriana Lipkova has been working in ECHA’s Biocidal Active Substances unit since 2012, currently with focus on exposure assessment. Earlier, she has been supporting ECHA’s Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis secretariat under REACH. Prior to joining ECHA she was acting as a consultant in an environmental engineering consultancy.

Remya Norris has over 15 years of experience within the chemical industry and has worked in the pharmaceutical industry before specializing in the coatings industry. He is a BPR Specialist, AkzoNobel and a Chartered Chemist at the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is also assessor for the accreditation of coatings education courses at the Royal Society of Chemistry and occupies a role on the Board of Trustees within the society.

Mirko Rohr is an environmental engineer and computer scientist with a Bachelor of Science in Energy and Environmental Engineering. He presently works as a scientific collaborator at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST), where he has gained over 5 years of expertise on the topic of biocide leaching from building materials. He has a keen interest in modelling and has supported the development of the software COMLEAM (COnstruction Material LEAching Model), currently deployed for several international research projects.

Christof Schneider has been working for BASF since 2011 and is currently a Senior Regulatory Scientist. Before joining BASF, he conducted his PhD at Universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt working on honeybee behaviour and its changes due to different environmental factors.

Eva Valkovicova is currently working as Dossier Manager in ECHA’s active substances unit of Biocides. Previously she has worked for REACH Regulation in the Hazard assessment unit of ECHA.

Joseph Wyatt has been working as a regulatory ecotoxicologist for HSE CRD for almost three years and is the technical lead for biocide evaluations. He works on both pesticidal and biocidal active substances and plant protection products with a keen interest in endocrine disruption.