Bapon (SHM) Fakhruddin, PhD

Water and Climate Leader| Strategic Investment Partnerships and Co-Investments| Professor| EW4ALL| Board Member| Chair- CODATA TG| Award Winner (SDG 2021, EWS 2025)

Rethinking Food Safety in the Age of Plastic Packaging

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Bapon Fakhruddin

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From the moment a container of yogurt leaves the factory to the instant it rests on our tables, it has undergone a journey fraught with invisible dangers. These dangers come in the form of plasticizers chemicals used to imbue plastics with flexibility and durability. Chief among these are phthalates and bisphenols like BPA, substances that have found their way into nearly every facet of our modern existence.

Let us transform our food systems into models of safety and sustainability. Let us safeguard not just the health of our people but also the health of our planet.

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About the author

Dr Fakhruddin is an expert climate change risk assessor with 18 years’ global experience in working on disaster risk and climate resilience projects. This experience is a major advantage in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy development. His key areas of expertise are climate and multi-hazard risk assessment, disaster preparedness, early warning and emergency response and coastal community resilience. He has designed climate change and disaster response projects more than 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific. During his career, Dr Fakhruddin helped to design major international multi-hazard early warning systems for floods, cyclone and tsunami to save life and property damage. His most high profile work has been developing multi-hazard warning systems including a tsunami warning system for Indian Ocean countries following the deadliest one in history – the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Dr Fakhruddin is currently work as a mentor and supervisor for postgraduate study in disaster risk management in University of Auckland (UoA). He is a Science Committee Member of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR, Co-Chair for the Disaster Loss DATA and Risk Interpretation and Applications (RIA) Working Group of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR. He is also Co-Chair CODATA task group Linked Open Data for Global Disaster Risk Research (LODGD) and PSG member of the Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) and Open Panel of Commission for Hydrology Experts (OPACHE) of WMO. Recently Dr Fakhruddin appointed by the Government of New Zealand to develop national climate change risk assessment framework