Dear Colleagues, 

Chemicals are part of our modern lives and their deliberate and unintentional release into the wider environment is a direct consequence of economic development. The scale of chemical release is estimated to be as high as 220 billion tonnes per annum. The chemical signature of humans is now ubiquitous and has been detected everywhere (e.g., upper atmosphere, highest mountains, deepest oceans, the pole, the most remote and uninhabited regions, in soil, water, air and in the human food chain). The World Health Organization estimated the burden of disease from selected chemicals at 1.6 million lives in 2016 (this is likely to be an underestimate). Chemical pollution also threatens a range of ecosystem services. Indeed, chemical pollution has now been recognized as one of the “planetary boundaries” (the planetary environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate), and it adversely impacts other planetary boundaries such as climate change and biosphere integrity. To date, the interaction between chemical pollution and environmental/human health have not been comprehensively understood. Therefore, this Special Issue of Biology focuses on the current state of knowledge on the links between chemical contaminants and environmental/human health. Original research articles, timely reviews, and short communications are welcome.

We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines including (1) environmental chemical behaviour and effect; (2) chemical toxicology; (3) exposure assessment science (4) epidemiology; (5) risk and health impact assessment; (6) risk management including environmental quality standards. Here are some examples of the chemical contaminants (in various environmental compartments including air, water, soils and sediments, etc.) that could be addressed in this Special Issue:

• Heavy metals including arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg), etc.
• Anthropogenic chemicals: pesticides, pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), household products, flame retardants, phthalates, micro-plastics, organic compounds, VOCs, etc.
• Mixtures of contaminants.

Dr. Zulin Zhang
Prof. Dr. Yongzhen Ding
Prof. Dr. Ping Li
Prof. Dr. Song Cui
Prof. Dr. Xuebin Qi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• environmental health
• risk assessment
• emerging contaminants
• heavy metals
• persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
• endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs)
• soil, air
• water
• food chain