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Publication

Preparation of a concrete and practically applicable roadmap for the application of effect-oriented measurements in current and future environmental and health policy, including validation by application to the selected hot spot Genk-Zuid of the 2nd generation Environment and Health Policy Research Centre.

Book - Report

Subtitle:Partial report2: Work package 2: Hotspot Genk-Zuid
Several policy documents indicate the importance of research into the health effects of environmental factors. Physical and chemical measurements are not sufficient as a basis for the assessment of health effects, because..:
- The vast majority of the health-damaging substances have not been identified,
- there is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the health-harmful potential of individual substances, and mixtures thereof,
- the number of pollutants measured is limited,
- Complex mixtures of chemicals, such as those occurring in the environment, can have important synergistic effects in terms of health damage.
The relevant advice of the Flemish Health Council (VGR, 2005, Advice on Biomonitoring) states that there is a need for biomonitoring on humans and biomonitoring on environmental samples on the basis of simple biological test systems representative of specific mechanisms of action of substances. The advantage is that health-threatening activity associated with unidentified or non-hazardous substances can also be detected, and that these tests can assess health effects of environmental factors in an integrated manner, including the important synergistic effects that can occur when exposed to the complex mixtures of chemical substances, as they can occur in the environment. Effect measurements are the interface between physicochemical measurements and human biomonitoring studies and can therefore be used to monitor air quality. Based on the known analogy between the measured in vitro endpoints and the toxic mechanisms of action of in vivo pollutants in humans, it can be concluded that the toxicological endpoints indicate that there may be an increased risk for certain health effects. For example, impact-based biological testing can help to assess the potential hazard and health risks associated with air quality in less-favoured areas or in acute situations. In this way, they can provide added value for a better assessment of health risks. However, the health interpretation of the results of the effect-based measurements has not yet been unambiguously established.
Number of pages: 138
Publication year:2011
Accessibility:Open