This interview is with Environmental Health Insights editorial board member Dr Lars Carlsen. Environmental Health Insights is an open access journal published by Libertas Academica.

Editor in Chief Dr Timothy Kelley has recently issued a call for papers

What is the primary focus of your research?

Environmental and human health impact of xenobiotics and their transformation products.

Development and application of model tools, such as structure-activity relationships and ranking techniques as decision support tools for the evaluation and prioritization of chemicals and polluted soils and waters to be carried out by industry and regulatory bodies.

Development and application of tools to prioritize the possible action by industry and regulatory bodies in the environmental area, including studies on how these tools can be integrated in environmental management.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

In our current studies on the possible negative influence on the environment and human health as a result of space activities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan we face some rather interesting features looking at the combined effects involving both the primary pollutant (the rocket fuel) as well as the transformation products. It appears that the combination of QSAR modelling with partial order ranking (POR) methodologies and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is a rather strong tool in assessing chemicals as well as prioritizing polluted sites.


Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

For the time being my main collaborators are the Center of Physical and Chemical Methods and Analysis (CPCMA) at the al-Farabi Kazakh National University. The main focus of the current research is the possible negative influence on the environment and human health as a result of space activities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Further collaborations are with Leibniz - Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries where I am involved in the further development of the use of partial order ranking methodologies.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

The nature of my current research is simply a result of the development over the years.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

I have published in open access journals and I like the idea. Not everyone has access to the "old" journals - either in printed version or online. The motivation is obviously to get to a broader audience, but the problem is that in most cases publishing in open access journals are far too expensive.

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

The last five papers we have published are:

289) A QSAR/QSTR study on the human health impact by the rocket fuel 1,1-dimethyl hydrazine and its transformation products Lars Carlsen, Bulat N. Kenessov and Svetlana Ye. Batyrbekova Environ.Toxicol.Pharmacol. 27 (2009) 415-423

Fate modelling of DEHP in Roskilde Fjord, Denmark Patrik Fauser, Jørgen Vikelsøe, Peter B. Sørensen and Lars Carlsen Environ.Model.Assess 14 (2009) 209-220

The interplay between QSAR/QSPR studies and Partial Order Ranking and Formal Concept Analyses Lars Carlsen Internat.J.Mol.Sci., 10 (2009) 1628-1657

Partial Order Ranking as a Tool in Environmental Impact Assessment. PAH and PCB pollution of the river Main as an illustrative example. Lars Carlsen and Rainer Brüggemann
In: Environmental Impact Assessments, George T. Halley and Yeram T. Fridian, eds., Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2009, pp. 335 - 354 ( ISBN 978-1-60692-667-3)

Трансформация несимметричного диметилгидразина в водных экстрактах почв (Transforation of asymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine in water extracts of soil M.B.Alimzhanova, B.N.Kenesov, S.E.Batyrbekova, L. Carlsen and M.K.Nauryzbaev Izvestiya of NAS of RK. Chemical series. Vol.373, No.1. P.87-92

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