Exposure of Pregnant Women to Halogenated Organic Pollutants (HOPs) and Health Implications in Areas Impacted by the Halogenated Chemical Industry (HOPE).

Halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs) released into the environment may cause adverse effects on the human health. To assess the human exposure risk of HOPs, it is thus necessary to investigate their environmental levels and consider the multiple exposure pathways of people in high-risk areas. Non-target screening (NTS) analytical approaches allow the early detection of potentially harmful novel HOPs. In addition, some novel HOPs may cause remarkable changes in cell metabolites, although they do not exhibit significant dose-effect relationships. Metabolomics may detect low, but critical effects that are not observed by conventional toxicological methods. The application of NTS and metabolomics on sensitive populations (e.g. pregnant women) in the vicinity of halogenated chemical industrial parks would thus provide a screening of high-risk HOPs. Through the cooperation of the Belgian and Chinese teams in this project, we aim at 1) identifying novel HOPs in multiple environmental media relevant for human exposure in the vicinity of chemical industry parks, 2) clarifying the dominant exposure pathways of novel HOPs through the comparison of exposure levels and characteristics of human internal and external exposure, 3) investigating the effects of combined exposure to HOPs on the metabolome of pregnant women, and 4) identifying biomarkers for high-risk HOPs. Altogether, our results will provide the basis for environmental and chemical management of novel HOPs.

Keywords:ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, MASS SPECTROMETRY

Disciplines:Instrumental methods, Environmental monitoring, Epidemiology

Project type:Collaboration project