Environmental and health impacts of geochemical cycles of persistent toxic substances in food productions systems: Editorial to the special issue for the 8th International Conference on Geochemistry in the Topics & Sub-tropics (GeoTrop 2017)

Abstract

The 8th International Conference on Geochemistry in the Topics & Sub-tropics (GeoTrop 2017): Ecotoxicology of persistent toxic substances in food production was held during 9–12 December 2017 at the Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in Shenzhen, China. The conference was organized due to the urgent needs to investigate the persistent evidence, environmental behavior and ecotoxicological effects of toxic substances of the food production systems which became a certain issue due to the rapid development of agricultural/aquacultural industries and growing concerns for public food safety. In Southeast Asia and especially South China (including Hong Kong), frequent occurrence of persistent toxic substances (PTSs) and their implication to health risks in humans have been reported in river/marine water and sediments (e.g. freshwater fish ponds and marine fish cages), farm soils (e.g. paddy soils), and garden soils (e.g. horticulture) and adjacent ecosystems (Lam et al. 2016; Liang et al. 2011; Tao et al. 2016; Xiong et al. 2016). The contamination levels of PTSs in these environmental media are crucial to the quality of fishery, aquatic and agricultural products, posing direct influences on food security. Therefore, there has been a special emphasis on environmental and health impacts of PTSs on food production systems in this region. The GeoTrop 2017 was co-organized by Peking -University Shenzhen Graduate School (China), Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China), Zhejiang A&F University (China), Jinan University (China), The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Baptist University and Korea University. The 1st Conference of this series was held in Kingston, Jamaica, 1994. The 2nd and the 3rd Conferences were held in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia and in Hong Kong, 1997 and 1999, with the 4th Conference in Townsville, Australia, 2001. The 5th and 6th Conferences were hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Haikou and Xiamen (China), 2004 and 2010, respectively. The 7th Conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand, 2012. Herein, the GeoTrop 2017 was co-chaired by Professor Huchun Tao from Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Professor Yong Sik Ok from Korea University, Professor Cehui Mo from Jinan University, and Professor Shengchun Wu from Zhejiang A&F University. The honorary chairman Professor Ming-Hung Wong was from The Education University of Hong Kong.