Research achievements of Professor Kenneth Leung, Chair Professor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) of the College of Science at CityU, were recently featured in a news article on the website of The Croucher Foundation. The Croucher Foundation is an independent private foundation dedicated to promoting the standard of the natural sciences, technology and medicine in Hong Kong. Professor Leung was awarded a Croucher Fellowship in 2000.
In the Croucher Foundation’s news, Professor Leung pointed out that we have more than 300,000 chemicals used daily; among them, about 1,000 are emerging chemicals with environmental concerns. We don’t know the toxicity and environmental persistence of these new chemicals and how they would impact marine life and affect human beings. His major work is to study the ecotoxicology of these chemicals.
Professor Leung is also co-leading the Global Estuaries Monitoring Program (GEM), a global study which is a component of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and has built an international team to monitor chemical contaminants in over 150 estuaries worldwide. His team conducted experimental trials of eco-engineered structures which form habitats for marine species on urbanised shorelines. The study, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin in 2020, found that the combined use of eco-tiles and rock oysters significantly increased species richness and abundance. Such a study was adopted for consideration under a European Commission’s environmental policy framework.
Another research he led measured the airborne microfiber released from tumble dryers when drying synthetic clothes. The results found that each tumble dryer could release an estimated 120 million microplastic fibres annually, making them a paramount source of airborne microplastics. The research was published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters in 2022.
Professor Leung is also the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution at CityU. His team co-authored another research paper entitled “Pharmaceutical Pollution of the World’s Rivers” in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in February 2022 which was named one of the six best papers of PNAS in 2022.