- Informing policy makers, regulators, stakeholders from the OECD, WHO and UN to help shape policies that reduce exposure and usage of harmful chemicals, supporting risk assessment and mitigation of both known and emerging chemicals, and evaluating regulatory efficiency or the need for further action.
- Providing the European Commission, EU agencies, member states, and the scientific community with input for exposure and hazard evaluation, modelling, risk and health assessments.
- Contributing data to monitor the impact of the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and Zero Pollution Action Plan.
Key messages
- This project will analyse data from the HBM4EU ↗ initiative to uncover new insights into chemical exposure, its regional variations, and its effects on health. It will specifically focus on chemicals like PFAS ↗, PAHs, pesticides, arsenic, and cadmium, using data from the HBM4EU Aligned Studies.
- By incorporating biological markers such as BDNF, kisspeptin, epigenetic markers, and hormones, the project will expand our understanding of how chemical exposure impacts health and help identify potential causal pathways.
- The project will explore workplace exposure to harmful substances, including chromates, e-waste contaminants, and diisocyanates, providing valuable insights into occupational health risks using HBM4EU Occupational Studies data.
- It will study the relationship between fish consumption patterns and mercury exposure (from the MoM-study ↗) and examine common pesticide exposure routes and influencing factors (from the SPECIMEn study ↗).
Overview
The HBM4EU project has generated extensive human biomonitoring data through the HBM4EU Aligned Studies ↗, covering various general population groups—adults, teenagers and children— as well as the HBM4EU occupational studies on occupational exposure to specific chemicals like chromium VI ↗, diisocyanates ↗ and e-waste. Chromium VI, for example, is a toxic form of chromium used in industrial processes, while diisocyanates are chemicals used in the production of foams, coatings, and adhesives. Electronic waste contains potentially harmful substances that are released during improper disposal. Additional studies include the MoM-study, which looks at mercury exposure ↗ during pregnancy, and the SPECIMEn study, examining pesticide ↗ hotspots. Data from these studies have already provided valuable insights, while more findings are expected to be published soon. However, further research questions are anticipated to arise from the data, and not all the generated data were analysed during HBM4EU.
To maximise the use of HBM4EU data and apply them to new biomonitoring studies planned under the Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), additional statistical analyses will be conducted. These analyses are expected to shed more light on sources of exposure and health effects. This project is of relevance for all regulatory frameworks that aim to control the production, use, environmental release, and exposure to chemicals, as well as those focused on protecting environmental, human and worker health.
Europe’s zero-pollution agenda ↗ should start with understanding the presence of synthetic chemicals in the bodies of its citizens and make reducing this chemical burden and its health impacts a key priority.
By measuring exposure and effect biomarkers in human biomonitoring studies, researchers can gain insight into the health impacts of chemicals and their substitutes. This data will also support grouping similar chemicals together and help avoid replacing harmful substances with other chemicals that pose a similar risk.
Achievements & Results
To date, two manuscripts are published as part of the exposure-effect analyses of the HBM4EU Aligned Studies, that is the manuscript on “Associations between urinary phthalate metabolites with BDNF and behavioral function among European children from five HBM4EU aligned studies ↗” and the manuscript on “Association of environmental pollutants with asthma and allergy, and the mediating role of oxidative stress and immune markers in adolescents ↗”.
For the remaining research questions, statistical analyses are ongoing and being finalised and manuscripts are being drafted.
Related Publications
Exposure to phthalates and their alternatives, found in common consumer products, may harm neurodevelopment and behavior in children, necessitating stricter regulatory measures to protect public health.
Significant data gaps exist on the health impacts of many widely used phthalates and substitutes; addressing these gaps is crucial to create comprehensive, evidence-based EU chemical regulations.
Significant data gaps exist on the health impacts of many widely used phthalates and substitutes; addressing these gaps is crucial to create comprehensive, evidence-based EU chemical regulations.
Emerging evidence links phthalate exposure to altered neurodevelopment and behavioral outcomes in children, highlighting the need to update regulatory safety thresholds and enforce stricter compliance measures.
Based on toxicological evidence, children’s exposure to phthalates may contribute to altered neurodevelopment and abnormal regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We analyzed data from five aligned studies of the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) project. Ten phthalate metabolites and protein BDNF levels were measured in the urine samples of 1148 children aged 6–12 years from Italy (NACII-IT cohort), Slovakia (PCB-SK cohort), Hungary (InAirQ-HU cohort) and Norway (NEBII-NO). Serum BDNF was also available in 124 Slovenian children (CRP-SLO cohort). Children’s total, externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist at 7 years of age (only available in the NACII-IT cohort). Adjusted linear and negative binomial regression models were fitted, together with weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression models to assess phthalate mixture associations. Results showed that, in boys but not girls of the NACII-IT cohort, each natural-log-unit increase in mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP) and Mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP) was cross-sectionally associated with higher externalizing problems [incidence rate ratio (IRR): 1.20; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.42 and 1.26; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.55, respectively]. A suggestive mixture association with externalizing problems was also observed per each tertile mixture increase in the whole population (WQS—IRR = 1.15; 95% CI: 0.97, 1.36) and boys (IRR = 1.20; 95% CI: 0.96, 1.49). In NACII-IT, PCB-SK, InAirQ-HU and NEBII-NO cohorts together, urinary phthalate metabolites were strongly associated with higher urinary BDNF levels, with WQS regression confirming a mixture association in the whole population (percent change (PC) = 25.9%; 95% CI: 17.6, 34.7), in girls (PC = 18.6%; 95% CI: 7.92, 30.5) and mainly among boys (PC = 36.0%; 95% CI: 24.3, 48.9). Among CRP-SLO boys, each natural-log-unit increase in ∑DINCH concentration was associated with lower serum BDNF levels (PC: −8.8%; 95% CI: −16.7, −0.3). In the NACII-IT cohort, each natural-log-unit increase in urinary BDNF levels predicted worse internalizing scores among all children (IRR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.32). Results suggest that (1) children’s exposure to di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolites is associated with more externalizing problems in boys, (2) higher exposure to DINCH may associate with lower systemic BDNF levels in boys, (3) higher phthalate exposure is associated with higher urinary BDNF concentrations (although caution is needed since the possibility of a “urine concentration bias” that could also explain these associations in noncausal terms was identified) and (4) higher urinary BDNF concentrations may predict internalizing problems. Given this is the first study to examine the relationship between phthalate metabolite exposure and BDNF biomarkers, future studies are needed to validate the observed associations.