Dioxin2025: Our Picks from the Program 

 We’re looking forward to a week of insightful plenaries, practical sessions, and conversations that connect science, policy, and action. From pioneering research on POPs and PFAS to global efforts in sustainable chemicals management, this year’s program promises a rich mix of perspectives and progress.

Check out the week’s highlights below – and get ready for a voyage of discovery at Dioxin2025!

Program Highlights

Sunday (09:15–10:10 AM, Anatolia): Risk Assessment of Persistent Organic Pollutants: Does One Size Fit All? (Stephen Safe). Immediately following the opening ceremony, environmental toxicologist Stephen Safe examines how persistent organic pollutants impact human health via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor – and whether one-size-fits-all risk assessments hold up. Also on our radar: Huiling Liu’s 11:50 AM talk (Anatolia) on PFAS reference materials, a key challenge in accurate PFAS analysis.

Monday (9:00–9:45 AM, Anatolia): POPs and Chemicals of Concern in a Changing Arctic (Derek Muir). It’s hard to look past Monday’s plenary, where Derek Muir – renowned for his pioneering work on Arctic contaminants – will explore how climate change is reshaping the distribution and impact of POPs. Also worth catching: K.S. Krätschmer’s 10:30 AM (Anatolia) session on how food processing (pan frying, for example) affects PFAS levels, and Ron Hoogenboom’s 3:00 PM (Göbekli Tepe) talk on PFAS immune toxicity and relative potency factors.

Tuesday (09:00–09:45 AM, Anatolia): Science at the Crossroads of Policy: Advancing Global Action on POPs, Plastics, and Emerging Chemicals Through Monitoring, Research, and Multilateral Cooperation (Kei Ohno). A leading voice in global chemicals governance, Kei Ohno Woodall brings her analytical chemistry background and policy acumen to the fore as she examines how science drives international cooperation on POPs, plastics, and emerging contaminants. And for those of you embarking on the afternoon tours – enjoy! 

Wednesday (3:20–3:40 PM, Anatolia): Temporal and Spatial Trends of POPs in Ambient Air Across Spain (2008–2023): Insights from the Spanish Monitoring Program on POPs (Begoña Jiménez). Begoña Jiménez presents 15 years of air-monitoring data revealing how POP levels across Spain have shifted over time and space. Also worth catching: Invisible threats in the Amazon Basin (5:00 PM, Cappadocia), where Tom Hamer explores PFAS and brominated flame retardants in water and sediments. And don’t miss plenary speaker Terry Bidleman (09:00–09:45 AM, Anatolia), a pioneering environmental-analytical chemist whose career has reshaped our understanding of POP transport, fate, and air-surface exchange from the Arctic to the tropics.

Thursday (09:00-09:45 AM, Anatolia): Towards an Integrated Sustainable Chemicals Management: Türkiye’s Path in the Global Context (İpek İmamoğlu). Environmental engineer and METU professor İpek İmamoğlu combines cutting-edge research on the fate of pollutants – from PCBs to microplastics – with hands-on policy experience through UN-implemented projects. Drawing on her work linking environmental modeling with sustainable regulation, she’ll outline Türkiye’s progress toward integrated, globally aligned chemicals management.

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About the Author(s)

James Strachan

Over the course of my Biomedical Sciences degree it dawned on me that my goal of becoming a scientist didn’t quite mesh with my lack of affinity for lab work. Thinking on my decision to pursue biology rather than English at age 15 – despite an aptitude for the latter – I realized that science writing was a way to combine what I loved with what I was good at. From there I set out to gather as much freelancing experience as I could, spending 2 years developing scientific content for International Innovation, before completing an MSc in Science Communication. After gaining invaluable experience in supporting the communications efforts of CERN and IN-PART, I joined Texere – where I am focused on producing consistently engaging, cutting-edge and innovative content for our specialist audiences around the world.

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