Staff Profile:Dr Chris Collins

Name:

Dr Chris Collins

Job Title:

Reader in Soil Science

Responsibilities:

• Programme Director: MSc Soils and Environmental Pollution
• Director of the Chemical Analysis Facility

Areas of Interest:

The main aim of my research is to reduce the risks from pollutants to humans and the wider ecosystem.

• Risk assessment of chemicals
• Modelling plant uptake of organic and radioactive contaminants for risk assessment
• Fate, transport and remediation of organic contaminants in soils
• Reed beds for the treatment of waste waters

Postgraduate Supervision:

Chris is keen to discuss proposals for postgraduate research in the study of the following topics:

• The uptake of organic chemicals by crops - measurement and modelling.
• The behaviour of soil pollutants in a human gut simulator.
• Fate and transport of organic pollutants in soils.

Applications are invited for the following competition funded project:

For further information contact: c.d.collins@reading.ac.uk

Research groups / Centres:

• Earth Systems Science Research Group
• Soil Research Centre

Key Information

My research and teaching addresses the fate of pollutants in the soil-plant system. This has been developed through multidisciplinary collaborations with industry, regulators and academics nationally and internationally, to determine the impacts of environmental exposure of humans and other biota to these toxic chemicals.

The outputs from my group's research have been used to validate models and quantify exposure pathways. Recently we developed an in-vitro gut system (CEPBET) for the determination of the bioaccessibility of organic pollutants. Additionally they have produced a framework for exposure models for the Intergovernmental Group on the Risk to Health from Chemicals so that the large number of models available could be used in a structured way across government. These are simple robust tools with the potential to have a significant impact on regulatory decisions.

More recently he reviewed the plant uptake model for The Environment Agency's Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment model (CLEA), to determine the most appropriate approach. Many models had unjustifiable complexity and none truly quantified the soil-air-plant pathway.

Other key findings of his research to date have been:

• Isotope ratio methods can validate chemomimetic methods for determining bioavailable fractions in soils.
• The metabolism of the recalcitrant compound MTBE is enhanced when present with other petrol constituents.
• The gaseous speciation of radioiodine is a key driver in human exposure.
• Simple plant growth models developed in agriculture can act as the engine for models predicting deposition and transport of the radionuclides ¹⁴C, ³⁵S and ³H which are readily mobile in the plant.  

Publications:

Y

Jump to: 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Number of items: 18.

2011

• Tilston, E. L., Gibson, G. R. and Collins, C. D. (2011) Colon extended physiologically based extraction test (CE-PBET) increases bioaccessibility of soil-bound PAH. Environmental Science and Technology, 45 (12). pp. 5301-5308. ISSN 0013-936X doi: 10.1021/es2004705
• Gomez-Eyles, J. L., Collins, C. D. and Hodson, M. E. (2011) Using deuterated PAH amendments to validate chemical extraction methods to predict PAH bioavailability in soils. Environmental Pollution, 159 (4). pp. 918-923. ISSN 0269-7491 doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.12.015
• Gomez-Eyles, J. L., Sizmur, T., Collins, C. D. and Hodson, M. E. (2011) Effects of biochar and the earthworm Eisenia fetida on the bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and potentially toxic elements. Environmental Pollution, 159 (2). pp. 616-622. ISSN 0269-7491 doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.09.037

2010

• Cullen, L. G., Tilston, E. L., Mitchell, G. R., Collins, C. D. and Shaw, L. J. (2010) Assessing the impact of nano- and micro-scale zerovalent iron particles on soil microbial activities: Particle reactivity interferes with assay conditions and interpretation of genuine microbial effects. Chemosphere, 82 (11). pp. 1675-1682. ISSN 0045-6535 doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.11.009
• Zhang, Y., Collins, C., Graham, N., Templeton, M. R., Huang, J. and Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2010) Speciation and variation in the occurrence of haloacetic acids in three water supply systems in England. Water and Environment Journal, 24 (3). pp. 237-245. ISSN 1747-6593 doi: 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2009.00200.x
• Collins, C. D. and Finnegan, E. (2010) Modeling the plant uptake of organic chemicals, including the soil-air-plant pathway. Environmental Science & Technology, 44 (3). pp. 998-1003. ISSN 0013-936X doi: 10.1021/es901941z
• Gomez-Eyles, J. L., Collins, C. D. and Hodson, M. E. (2010) Relative proportions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons differ between accumulation bioassays and chemical methods to predict bioavailability. Environmental Pollution, 158 (1). pp. 278-284. ISSN 0269-7491 doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2009.07.012

2009

• Collins, C. D. and Willey, N. J. (2009) Phylogenetic variation in the tolerance and uptake of organic contaminants. International Journal of Phytoremediation, 11 (7). pp. 623-639. ISSN 1522-6514 doi: 10.1080/15226510902787286
• Abdallah, M. A., Harrad, S., Collins, C. and Tilston, E. L. (2009) Preliminary assessment of bioaccessibility of HBCDs from Human GIT following indoor dust ingestion using a colon extended physiologically based extraction test (CEPBET). Organohalogen Compounds, 71. pp. 106-110. ISSN 1026-4892
• Collins, C.D., Lothian, D. and Schifano, D. (2009) Remediation of soils contaminated with petrol and diesel with lime. Land Contamination and Reclamation, 17 (2). pp. 237-244. doi: 10.2462/09670513.940
• Gao, Y. Z. and Collins, C. D. (2009) Uptake Pathways of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in White Clover. Environmental Science & Technology, 43 (16). pp. 6190-6195. ISSN 0013-936X doi: 10.1021/es900662d
• Huang, J., Graham, N., Templeton, M. R., Zhang, Y., Collins, C. and Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2009) A comparison of the role of two blue-green algae in THM and HAA formation. Water Research, 43 (12). pp. 3009-3018. ISSN 0043-1354 doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2009.04.029

2008

• Sjostrom, A. E., Collins, C. D., Smith, S. R. and Shaw, G. (2008) Degradation and plant uptake of nonylphenol (NP) and nonylphenol-12-ethoxylate (NP12EO) in four contrasting agricultural soils. Environmental Pollution, 156 (3). pp. 1284-1289. ISSN 0269-7491 doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2008.03.005
• Collins, C. D. (2008) A semi-quantitative approach to deriving a model structure for the uptake of organic chemicals by vegetation. International Journal of Phytoremediation, 10 (5). pp. 371-377. ISSN 1522-6514 doi: 10.1080/15226510802100440

2007

• Collins, C., White, J.C. and Rock, S. (2007) Plant uptake of organic chemicals: current developments and recommendations for future research. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 26 (12). pp. 2465-2466. ISSN 0730-7268 doi: 10.1897/07-311.1
• Collins, C. (2007) Organic pollutants in animal products. In: NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Impact of Pollution on Animal Products, Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN, pp. 55-62.

2006

• Fryer, M., Collins, C. D., Ferrier, H., Colvile, R. N. and Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2006) Human exposure modelling for chemical risk assessment: a review of current approaches and research and policy implications. Environmental Science & Policy, 9 (3). pp. 261-274. ISSN 1462-9011 doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2005.11.011
• Collins, C.D., Fryer, M. and Grosso, A. (2006) Plant uptake of non-ionic organic chemicals. Environmental Science and Technology, 40 (1). pp. 45-52. ISSN 0013-936X doi: 10.1021/es0508166

This list was generated on Sat May 26 15:26:18 2012 BST.