Address: Campus Omar Dengo, Universidad Nacional, Heredia.
Country: Costa Rica
Post Code: 86-3000
City: Heredia
Website: www.iret.una.ac.cr
Background and Experience
IRET was created in 1998 as an institute inside Universidad Nacional. The institute has an interdisciplinary structure dedicated to the study of problems related to anthropogenic pollutants in the environment, their presence and effects in exposed ecosytems from toxicity to aquatic organisms to evidences on human health. Our labor is approached through four main areas of research: Diagnosis (of the use of substances), Environmental Chemistry (Exposure evaluation), Environment (ecotoxicology) and Heath (exposure and effects on human populations). Since its beginning, IRET has focused mainly on pesticides, this because agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in Costa Rica, but more recently, we have also broaden our scope of interest to other pollutants and environmental stressors such as antibiotics, organic pollutants or heat.