Prof Beatrice Opeolu’s research mission is not just to establish levels of pollutants in the environment, but also to assess possible health risks and develop abatement methods that will be cheap and available in developing economies like South Africa, thus providing a comprehensive approach to solving environmental problems.

Opeolu is the leader of the Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area at CPUT, and environmental toxicology and chemistry form the basis of her research expertise. Recently she delivered her Inaugural Professorial Lecture titled, Tainted ‘Potpourri’ in a Climate-changing World: An African Perspective, on the Bellville Campus.

“My research objective is to understand occurrence of pollutants in environmental matrices, and their impacts on human health and the health of ecosystems,” said the C3 National Research Foundation - rated established researcher.

“Method development, monitoring, remediation and risk assessment studies of these pollutants are the core of my research focus – particularly endocrine disrupting chemicals, which are compounds of emerging concern.”

She added that Potpourri is produced from dried plant materials to generate natural scent in homes. “However, essential oils (natural) may be added to the bowl for a more lasting fragrance,” she argued. “The quest for a cheaper alternative may also allow the use of synthesised chemical analogues of the fragrances.”

In this analogy, potpourri represents the world’s environment, with all of its vast natural resources.

She observed that in our ongoing quest to improve human well-being, inventions have resulted in longer life expectancies, wealth creation, industrialisation and urbanisation, but that anthropogenic activities necessary for human existence, dignity and quality of life come with detrimental consequences to people and the environment.

“Sustainable utilisation and management of natural resources is imperative, and is the responsibility of everyone that lives on earth,” directed Opeolu.

Written by Kwanele Butana

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Calling anyone interested in or already working on waste management systems across CPUT campuses.

The Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area wants to meet you and find out what you have been doing, or want to do to clean up our campuses and environment at large.

Beatrice Opeolu, leader of the Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area, will host a Forum to start a conversation around a CPUT Waste Management Strategy, and consequently policy document, on Wednesday 10 October. The meeting will take place in Room 3.1 in the Applied Sciences Building on District Six Campus, starting at 12.30 for 13.00.

This would touch on everything from how waste paper is managed to how to minimise the use of single-use plastic items like straws or cutlery on campus.

In order to create a strategy Opeolu points out all relevant stakeholders need to be consulted. “There are a lot of different projects on the various campuses, like the Green Team.

“We need them all to be part of this. Come with ideas on how to go about it, come and tell us what you already do,” said Opeolu.

This initial Forum will focus on what is being done on campuses, what works and what is needed in terms of waste management practices on CPUT campuses.

Opeolu says eventually industry partners can also be contracted to help with large scale management of waste, but for first an inventory of all practices on campus is needed.

“Ultimately we want a policy that will guide us on how we manage waste, so we can be proud of how we do things. It will take a while but we can do it,” said Opeolu.

*For more information or to RSVP for the Forum you can contact Lucille Peterson on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 021 460 3153. 

Written by Theresa Smith
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A Guest lecturer from the University of Florida, Dr Tara Sabo-Attwood, will co-facilitate a Women in Science Chatroom on District Six Campus next week.

Invited by Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area leader Beatrice Opeolu, Sabo-Attwood will also deliver guest lectures in the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Sabo-Attwood is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Global Health and a member of the Centre for Environmental and Human Toxicology and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.

Opeolu will facilitate the Chatroom alongside Sabo-Attwood, with the two having met on a similar forum.

“Tara and I, together with another colleague from Europe, Dr Gertie Arts, previously facilitated a workshop for women at the SETAC Africa meeting in Nigeria last year, and it was a huge success,” explained Opeolu.

Sabo-Attwood and Opeolu will be joined by CPUT Director of Institutional Transformation, Social Cohesion and Diversity Nonkosi Tyolwana and CPUT Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Prof Rene Pellissier. Opeolu hopes to replicate a similar effect at CPUT to the previous workshop, with each of the women providing their unique perspective on how they deal with positions of leadership and navigate work challenges and their personal lives. The venue is Room 4.28, Engineering Building, District Six Campus on Wednesday 19 September from 12.30 to 15.00.

The Florida professor will teach the Water Quality Management Class for BTech Environmental Health and Environmental Management students on Tuesday 18 September from 15.00 to 16.30, presenting a lecture titled “Novel In Vitro Approaches for Aquatic Monitoring of Emerging Contaminants”. During the lecture, she will discuss the use of in vitro assays for water and wastewater management practices.

Opeolu says Sabo-Attwood’s presence introduces a new context to the classroom: “The way she teaches this class will be different to how I would, my field and laboratory experience and context is different from Tara’s. It helps to enrich the delivery of the curriculum and what the students take out of the class. The Guest Lecturer will add value to students’ learning experience by bringing a new perspective to the class. It is also an innovative way to step aside from routine classroom teaching and helps students to build their own networks in the process of learning.”

On 20 September Sabo-Attwood will also deliver a faculty seminar for staff and students on Nano-Evolution: Balancing Safety and Applications of Nanotechnology in Aquatic Systems” in Room 2.71, Science Building on District Six Campus between 12.30 and 14.00.

*Those who wish to attend the faculty lecture or women’s event can email Lucille Peterson on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to RSVP.

Written by Theresa Smith
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World Environment Day is not just about oceans, it’s about everything to do with the environment, whether it is water or the food that we grow or the soil or the air. Anything that affects the environment. 

This year’s theme is Beat Plastics Pollution to make people more aware of the harmful effects of plastic on the environment.

Extended Curriculum Programme coordinator in the Faculty of Applied Sciences Beatrice Opeolu drives activities to create awareness around climate change and the environment as the leader of the Climate Change and Environment Research Focus Area.

She teaches water quality management to Environmental Management and Environmental Health BTech students and recently she has started focusing more on environmental toxicology.

“This would be the study of poisons in the environment,” explained Opeolu.

For the last decade, Opeolu’s research concentrated on monitoring different kinds of pollutants in water and food samples, searching for the presence of heavy metals, phenols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), perfluorinated compounds and pharmaceuticals. 

(The dominant sources of PAHs in the environment are human activities such as wood-burning or combustion of biofuels, improper waste disposal).

She started off researching how the PAH level in food changes depending on how it is processed (fats are converted to PAH differently when food is grilled versus fried or boiled) and then moved on to checking PAH levels in freshwater systems. She discovered PAH levels were higher in the sediments than in the water, which means different effects for organisms that live and feed on sediment materials versus others in the water column.

Now she is moving from purely monitoring water to look at the entire cycle of exposure.

Specifically, she is concentrating on various pollutants in water, figuring out at what levels these pollutants become toxic to the environment. Not only does she want to investigate what pollutants are present but she wants to figure out what this means for the environment and what remediation can be affected.

“So the long-term plan is to be able to develop a material that we can use, as individuals and on an industrial scale, to remediate a combination of the pollutants. I’ve done research into heavy metals, several organic compounds including pharmaceuticals; so it would be great to have a single material that can remediate up to four pollutants because that would be more cost-effective,” said Opeolu.

She is currently setting up a laboratory space on the Bellville campus in the Horticulture department where she can oversee two or three postgraduate students. Here she will expose organism such as Daphnia (planktonic crustaceans specifically bred to be used in the laboratory), microalgae and bacteria to various pollutants in controlled environments.

Eventually, she wants to be part of a Water Institute on campus so that she can draw on the expertise of colleagues in various fields to develop water remediation systems and solutions.

* Today, 5 June is World Environment Day and the Applied Sciences Department hosts a Symposium on District Six Campus. Themed Beat Plastic Pollution, the symposium will feature six speakers talking about various effects of plastic pollution.

** On Friday 8 June renowned toxicologist Prof Augustine Arukwe from the Norwegian University of Science and will deliver a public lecture at the Saretec building on Bellville Campus followed by a panel discussion, between 12 am and 2 pm. 

Written by Theresa Smith
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CPUT is planning a series of events between World Environment Day and World Oceans Day to raise awareness about the effects of plastic pollution. 

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June is Beat Plastic Pollution and for World Oceans Day on 8 June, it is about preventing plastic pollution.

Extended Curriculum Programme Coordinator in the Faculty of Applied Sciences Beatrice Opeolu drives activities to create awareness around climate change and the environment as the leader of the Climate Change and Environmental Research Focus Area.

 “There is strong evidence now that plastic is everywhere, in the water we drink, in river systems, in the oceans. Studies have also proved that plastics of different sizes and different types cause different kinds of ecological imbalances in the environment at large,” said Opeolu.

The first event is a day-long symposium on 5 June at the Science Building on the District Six Campus. Themed Beat Plastic Pollution, the symposium will feature six speakers talking about various effects of plastic pollution.

Renowned toxicologist Prof Augustine Arukwe from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, will talk about endocrine disruptive effects of plastic-derived contaminants.

CPUT’s Oceans Research Chair Prof Ken Findlay will give a glimpse into plastic pollution and marine animal entanglements and mortalities while Aaniya Omardien of The Beach Cooperative will talk about beach clean-ups.

Prof Jonathan Okonkwo of the Tshwane University of Technology, Nitasha Baijnath-Pillay of the Department of Environmental Affairs and North-West University doctoral student Karin Minnaar round out the programme.

The next day,  6 June, between 11 am to 1 pm, CPUT students and staff are invited to take part in an effort to clean up the precinct around the District Six Campus.

Thursday 7 June, between 11 am to 1 pm, is set aside for invited guests to meet CPUT researchers, lecturers and students. “They will be based at the Applied Sciences Faculty to meet anyone from the institution who wants to work with them or just network,” said Opeolu.

On Friday 8 June, Arukwe will deliver a public lecture at the Saretec building on Bellville Campus followed by a panel discussion, between 12 am and 2 pm. The public lecture is titled “Plastic components as significant source for environmental obesogens: A societal concern for human and wildlife health.”

“After the lecture, all of the colleagues we invited for the symposium, except for Aaniyah Omardien who will not be available, will sit in a panel discussion and chat about plastic pollution and plastic issues.

“The audience will have the opportunity to ask them questions and to contribute to the discussion,” said Opeolu.  

Find the World Environment Day & Oceans Day programme here.

Written by Theresa Smith
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