Publicaties

Human health risk assessment is historically built upon animal testing, often following Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guidelines and exposure assessments. Using combinations of human relevant in vitro models, chemical analysis and computational (in silico) approaches bring advantages compared to animal studies. These include a greater focus on the human species and on molecular mechanisms and kinetics, ...

Mycotoxins, natural toxins produced by fungi, contaminate nearly 80% of global food crops. Alternaria mycotoxins, including alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethylether (AME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA), present a health concern due to their prevalence in various plants and fruits. Exposure to these toxins exceeds the threshold of toxicological concern in some European populations, especially infants and toddlers. Despite this, regulatory ...

In het kader van humane biomonitoring (HBM) studies worden stalen zoals bloed, serum, urine, haar, uitgeademde lucht, … genomen door opgeleide personen (verpleegkundigen, artsen), en dit meestal op een vaste onderzoeksdag en op een centrale locatie voor een groep van deelnemers. Dit proces is tijds- en arbeidsintensief en relatief duur. Het zorgt ook voor een beperkte flexibiliteit in het moment en de locatie van staalafname. Bovendien wordt een ...

The assessment of human mycotoxin exposure can be conducted through two approaches: an indirect method, which relies on combining food chemical analysis with food consumption data, and a direct method that involves analyzing mycotoxin biomarkers of exposure in biological fluids like urine, blood, feces, or breast milk. In recent years, many efforts have been put in the development of fast and robust (micro)sampling techniques as well as ...

Phthalates and the substitute plasticizer DINCH belong to the first group of priority substances investigated by the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) to answer policy -relevant questions and safeguard an efficient science -to -policy transfer of results. Human internal exposure levels were assessed using two data sets from all European regions and Israel. The first collated existing human biomonitoring (HBM) data (2005 -2019). ...

Workers involved in the processing of electronic waste (e-waste) are potentially exposed to toxic chemicals, including phthalates and alternative plasticizers (APs). Dismantling and shredding of e-waste may lead to the production of dust that contains these plasticizers. The aim of this study, which was part of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU), was to assess the exposure to phthalates (e.g. di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), ...

The present narrative review summarizes recent findings focusing on the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a biomarker of effect for neurodevelopmental alterations during adolescence, based on health effects of exposure to environmental chemical pollutants. To this end, information was gathered from the PubMed database and the results obtained in the European project Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU), in which BDNF was ...

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin frequently observed in cereals and cereal-based foods, with reported toxicological effects including reduced body weight, immunotoxicity and reproductive defects. The European Food Safety Authority used traditional risk assessment approaches to derive a deterministic Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of 1 mu g/kg-day, however data from human biomarkers studies indicate widespread and variable exposure worldwide, ...

Uit eerdere milieu- en bloedonderzoeken blijkt dat de omgeving van het bedrijf 3M in Zwijndrecht vervuild is met PFAS. Het doel van deze studie is om de volksgezondheid te beschermen en na te gaan in welke mate jongeren in de omgeving van 3M blootgesteld worden aan PFAS, op welke manier de blootstelling gebeurt, en hoe dit verband houdt met de gezondheid.
De onderzoekers voerden humane biomonitoring (HBM) uit, dit betekent ‘meten in de ...

Binnen deze opdracht willen we met behulp van non-target en suspect screening analyse onderzoeken welke stoffen aanwezig zijn in stofstalen uit de binnenomgeving en op basis hiervan een evaluatie mogelijk te maken van hun mogelijk effect op de gezondheid. Door toepassing van een algemene suspecte screening werden in totaal 65 contaminanten geïdentificeerd die behoren tot de klassen van de ftalaten, de alternatieve weekmakers, de ...