The 5th Sino-Swedish Workshop on Environmental and Health Risk of Anthropogenic Environmental Pollutants was successfully held in Stockholm from October 8 to 12, 2014 with over 40 participants from Sweden and China. This workshop series is as a result of a collaboration between Sweden and China, represented by Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, Department of Contaminant Research, Swedish Museum of Natural History, and College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University. The workshop is hosted alternately in Stockholm and Shanghai since September 2010. The workshop series is here to stay for another five years at least, now as part of the CHEMSTRRES project, financially supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR).

This 5th workshop consisted of ten sessions, including research group presentations, planning of CHEMSTRRES sub-projects and key tasks, sub-project group discussions, detailed reports on project plans, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) visits, academic exchange and a visit to Swetox (Swedish Toxicology Sciences Research Center), etc. In parallel two days of visits to the relevant Swedish governmental agencies for the reference group members was also arranged. The Swedish reference group members were hosting the Chinese reference group members.

On the first day’s workshop, the core research team presented their work regarding the past collaboration and the ongoing CHEMSTRRES project. The reference group presentations focused on the administrative work progress in terms of food safety, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and environmental monitoring in China and Sweden. Prof. Kevin Bishop from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the PI of a parallel VR-funded project of SMaReF, presented their project which focus on the Sino-Swedish mercury management. Through visit to the relevant Swedish agencies in the following two days, the Chinese reference group gained better understanding about the organizational structure and routine work of the Swedish authorities. The research group spent two full days on discussion of project planning. The results of the discussions were presented in the morning of the fourth day of the workshop, i.e. seven sub-projects were specified, including one exotox project and six exposure projects. The visit to Käppala Waste Water Treatment Plant, the Swedish Toxicology Sciences Research Center (Swetox), and the AstraZeneca special waste water treatment plant took place in the last two days of the workshop.

The formal participants include twenty five researchers from the CHEMSTRRES research group both from Sweden (11) and China (14), and eight reference members/representatives from governmental agencies and research institutes of Sweden (4) and China (4). Over twenty Guest participants also attended the first day’s workshop. They were from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala University, Swedish Toxicology Sciences Research Center (Swetox), Swedish Research Council (VR), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Acturum, Plentzia marine station, Spain, Swedish Museum of Natural History, and Stockholm University.

Some reflections; The Sino-Swedish research team is, after more than three years of preceding cooperation, very well acquainted and operational. The discussions are running very smoothly and result oriented. The CHEMSTRRES program fit into a larger framework, ShangEYE, in which other projects, run on Chinese funding, are incorporated. The work is very dynamic and this is indeed promising for the future. As shown below the research team worked out project plans for CHEMSTRRES, some of which are detailed while others still are in an initial phase of planning. The project plans are now to be elaborated on and moved in the direction of completion.

Both the Chinese and Swedish reference group members contributed significantly to the project and paved a base for future interaction both in Sweden and in China. It was decided to bring together the Swedish and Chinese reference group members separately during the fall of 2014 to discuss the outcome of the planning done during the workshop.

The 6th Sino-Swedish Workshop on Environmental and Health Risk of Anthropogenic Environmental Pollutants, i.e. the next workshop, is scheduled for October, 2015, to be held at Tongji University in Shanghai.