Job description
This is a unique opportunity to apply your technical knowledge to improve air quality, by focusing on the health effects of the complex range of chemical compounds released by industry.

You will work within a technical team to develop new Environmental Assessment Levels (EALs) for some of the more significant industrial pollutants produced by our regulated industry. EALs are used by the Environment Agency to judge the acceptability of proposed emissions to air from industrial sites, and their relative contribution to the environment. They represent a pollutant concentration in ambient air at which no appreciable, or minimal, risk to human health is expected.

The Environment Agency has a published list of over 80 EALs on GOV.UK, and we are currently reviewing these published values in line with our updated EAL derivation approach, published in 2012. To develop new EALs, you will work closely with Environment Agency staff in our Regulated Industry team and in the Chief Scientist’s Group, as well as with the UK Health Security Agency (previously Public Health England). Our ultimate goal is to safeguard human health from emissions from our regulated industries.

The team
You will be working in the Monitoring and Assessment (M&A) team within Radioactive Substances and Installations Regulation (RSIR), part of our wider Regulated Industry team. You will work collaboratively with the Environment Agency’s Chief Scientist Group, and with our Energy teams in RSIR.

M&A currently has three existing specialists covering different aspects of air quality regulation across the Environment Agency. Other M&A units lead on noise; odour; and emissions monitoring and certification (MCERTS) respectively.

Experience/skills required
You will have a good understanding of:

• Mammalian and human toxicology
• Methods for the derivation of guidance values for threshold and non-threshold pollutants by WHO, Europe, & USA, as well as UK approach
• Methods for EAL derivation including the structuring of summaries
• UK, EU and international air quality legislation

You will have a background in a relevant scientific discipline at graduate level or above, and be on the UK Register of Toxicologists

You will require experience in:

• reviewing and summarising scientific publications on mammalian and human toxicology of pollutants
• interpretation of in vitro and in vivo, and epidemiological studies for repeat dose toxicity, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenicity, and applying a weight-of-evidence approach to categorisation and classification

You will be
• familiar with UKHSA and the work of the UK expert committees on toxicity, carcinogenicity and mutagenicity
• skilled at influencing outcomes through effective relationships

This is a contract lasting until March 31st 2023.