Emma is an experienced environmental chemist and ecotoxicologist with over 23 years' experience in a research and regulatory setting.
Before joining Ricardo, Emma was a technical expert on chemical risk in the Environment Agency, providing specialist knowledge and technical leadership on the environmental fate, behaviour and ecotoxicological impacts of chemicals across the business. Emma was the evidence acquisition lead for the Environment Agency’s PFAS working group, developing a cross-business evidence plan for PFAS that identified and prioritised evidence gaps and research needs. She researched and wrote a narrative synthesis of UK environmental monitoring data which evaluated and presented the current evidence base for UK sources, pathways, and environmental levels (see Environment Agency, 2021).
Since joining Ricardo she has been involved in a variety of projects including evaluation of risks to drinking water from persistent, mobile and toxic chemicals and organo-phosphate flame retardants, gap analysis of pesticide legislation, evaluation of data used for PBT/vPvB assessment under REACH.
Emma is a strategic thinker and has worked closely with chemicals policy colleagues, co-designing, and then producing reports, briefing notes, and presentations, which have been used to communicate the evidence base on chemicals of national concern such as PFAS, mercury, PBDEs, cypermethrin, PAHs. The documents are used to inform policy development and influence behaviour and decision making in managing risks to the environment from chemicals. She has a broad range of regulatory expertise, critically evaluating hazard data and environmental risk assessments for pesticides, veterinary medicines, biocides, and industrial chemicals representing the Environment Agency’s concerns at the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, Veterinary products Committee and the Environment Panel. She was an active member of the Water Framework Directive UK Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Chemistry Task team between 2015 and 2021.