Sea Care – Health, Environment and Climate in the Planetary

Marine ecosystems are increasingly affected by the impact of external factors of both environmental and anthropogenic nature that could compromise their resilience, causing deficits in ecological and economic resources over time with consequent impacts on humans as well.

It is essential, therefore, to identify and analyse the effects of human activities and climate and environmental changes so as to assess the potential human health risks related to them. Planetary health refers to the health of the human population and the state of the natural systems on which it depends.

Starting with integration and going beyond the "from source to sea" approach, the concept of "one ocean" encompasses the resources where all the objectives of the UN agenda on sustainable development coexist and sometimes conflict. Investigating and understanding phenomena in this environment is an incredibly challenging task that requires aligning interests and ensuring sustainability for the oceans.

The project aims to study the effects of human activities and global climate and environmental changes to assess potential health risks. It also aims to improve health prevention strategies in a complex environmental scenario and support the development of remediation and prevention policies.

We propose a transnational and multi-sectoral approach in which government institutions, the scientific community, and civil society collaborate to optimize resources and synergies.

Through this initiative, our goal is to develop a new methodological approach for collecting information and data on a global scale, thereby reducing the errors that often occur in the analysis of large datasets. This approach will enable us to better understand the distribution of anthropogenic substances in marine environments, pathways of exposure, and the associated risks to human health.

The proposed methodology benefits from partnerships between different institutions that contribute their specific expertise and skills.

Among the aims of the project included the definition of contamination profiles of the sea, the assessment of the possible presence and concentration of not only chemical and biological contaminants (e.g. metals, pesticides, micro pollutants, virus, resistant antibiotics, bacteria) but also "emerging" contaminants (e.g. microplastics, PFAS).