JSWE: An energetic platform for promoting
communication and cooperation
between China and Japan
Professor, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,
Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院生態環境研究中心，教授）

Dongbin Wei（魏 東斌）

With the recommendation from the Chinese Society
for Environmental Sciences and the support of theJSWE-IDEA International Exchange Award, I attended
the 50th Annual Conference of JSWE held inTokushima from March 16‑18, 2016. It is my greathonour to be awarded, and I wonder to express mysincere thanks for all the support and help from bothChina and Japan sides.
My research field mainly focuses on thetransformation mechanisms and risk assessment on theemerging pollutants during environmental processes,
covering natural environmental process and artiﬁcial
water treatment processes. The environment issues
caused by emerging pollutants become more and more
important not only in China, but also in all over theworld. The research on their transformation behaviors
and risk variation of these pollutants during
environmental processes would be helpful for pollution
control and environmental risk elimination.
During the annual conference, I gave a presentation
entitled “Toxicity-directed fate and transformation of
benzophenone-type UV filters in chlorinationd i s i n f e c t i o n ”. B e n z o p h e n o n e - t y p e c h e m i c a l s（abbreviated as BPs） are one of the primary
components in the UV-ﬁlter family. The BPs have beenfrequently observed in the environment, showing highpotentials to invade drinking water, swimming water,or wastewater reclamation treatment systems. The
toxicity of two out of 14 BPs had signiﬁcant increase
after chlorination disinfection treatment. The UV-ﬁlter
BP-4 （2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulfonicacid）was targeted to reveal the possible mechanisms
during water disinfection treatment with free availablechlorine（FAC）． It was found that BP-4 was rapidly
exhausted within the ﬁrst 5 min, and 14 products fromfree chlorine promoted BP-4 disinfection have been204

disclosed. The possible transformation mechanisms
include chlorine substitution, oxidation, esterhydrolysis, decarboxylation, and desulfonation. The
model studies evidenced that some small moleculeswith high genotoxicity, such as chloroform andchlorinated benzoquinones, were generated inchlorination systems of BP-4 and some other BPs.
More importantly, we have observed that theFAC-treated BP-4 aqueous solution might increase thegenotoxic potentials due to the generation ofchlorinated disinfection by-products. Especially, thetoxicity-directed method has been proved to be auseful tool to screen the potential environmental risk ofmore emerging pollutants during chlorination
disinfection treatment.
This is the fourth chance for me to attend annual
conference of JSWE. When I studied in Yokohama
National University as a COE fellow, I attended annualconferences in 2004, 2005 and 2006. After a ten-year
absence, the 50th annual conference impressed me
deeply once again. First, I met lots of old friends, andmade many new friends from universities andcompanies. Second, every presenter and listener not
only famous scientist but also student hadcomprehensive discussion and communication onscience problems with the conscientious and carefulattitude.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks toJSWE organization for excellent arrangement of the50th annual conference. I believe that this conference
provided an energetic platform for every participant
not only to learn knowledge, but also to advancecommunication and cooperation. I hope I can stand on
this platform and contribute myself to promote morecooperation on environmental issues between Chinaand Japan.

水環境学会誌

Journal of Japan Society on Water Environment