The latest news from Eawag

Groundwater, which provides 80 percent of Switzerland's drinking water, is the focus of the Eawag Info Day taking place today in Dübendorf.

The water research institute Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland are part of the new EU project UrbanM₂O. It is led by the Danish Technical University DTU in Copenhagen. The aim of the six-million-euro project is to develop monitoring and modelling-based solutions to combat water pollution in cities – an issue that is becoming increasingly important with the expansion of sponge cities.

A controversial serum has been necessary for the growth of cells in the context of animal-free toxicology research. Eawag researchers have now developed an alternative.

To curb global plastic pollution and to make plastics safer and more sustainable, countries are currently negotiating a global treaty. A new study with participation from Eawag and Empa published in Nature provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of all chemicals that can be present in plastics, their properties, uses, and hazards. Moreover, the study also provides a scientific approach for identifying chemicals of concern. This allows scientists and manufacturers to develop safer plastics and policy makers to promote a non-toxic circular economy.

Researchers from the Ecotox Centre, Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland have tested combined biological and chemical online monitoring as an early warning system at a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The system is able to detect peak loads of micropollutants in treated wastewater and identify toxic pollutants in real time. In this way, it can contribute to improving wastewater management.

A sudden drop in temperature in Lake Geneva over the Whitsun weekend is leaving swimmers feeling chilly: within a few days, the surface water temperature near the city of Geneva fell by around 8 degrees. This is due to a natural phenomenon that can be observed impressively on the Alplakes platform.