Within the EU, more than 100.000 chemical compounds are currently being used. However, the environmental and health effects of less than 1% of these compounds are known.

The exposure of humans to chemicals from the environment and consumer products is a continual problem because of changing exposure routes (e.g. different land use patterns), and use new chemicals. For example, various organic persistent contaminants appear to accumulate in human tissues at concentrations that can not be explained by the expected exposure routes. Thus, there appears to be mechanisms of exposure to humans that remain unresolved and there is also growing evidence that this involves unique interactions between humans and the environment.

The relationship between consumer products, environment and health in connection to new exposure pathways is an important research field within the department’s research. This involves research on the identification of new contaminants appearing in various reservoirs indicative of human exposure (i.e., aquatic food chains, breast milk, sewage sludge, etc.), as well as improved understanding of the dynamics of pathogenic traits in the environment.

Risk assessment of chemical contaminants does not only require tools for measuring the presence of the chemicals but also tools for determining their chemical activity and accessibility. The ability of being able to determine the chemical activity of a certain contaminant is critical for assessing the exposure to the environment and humans.  However, because of lack of techniques for determining the chemical activity of environmental contaminants, the knowledge on the magnitude of the human and environmental exposure levels is limited. An important aspect of the research efforts are, therefore,  to develop and use state-of-the-art methods for determining the exposure of (organic) contaminants in relevant matrices such as soil, water, biota, foods and consumer products.  Furthermore, the aim is to strengthen the link between the analytical determination of exposure levels of organic pollutants (external and internal exposure) and the risk for effects on populations of wildlife and humans. Specifically, the aims are to:

• Develop and use passive equilibrium sampling techniques
• Develop and use passive (controlled) passive dosing techniques in toxicity testing
• Study the transport of organic contaminants across biological membranes
• Investigate the links between exposure and toxicity by use of e.g. toxicogenomics, cell-based in vitro assays and biomarkers
• Correlate the accessibility of an organic contamination with the possibilities of cleaning-up the contaminated site using biological methods (bioremediation and phytoremediation)

Examples of our research are presented below.

Development and application of highly sensitive analytical methods to verify pollutants in environmental samples and comsumer products, plants, animals and humans. For further information, please contact Pia Lassen, pla@dmu.dk and Kai Bester, kb@dmu.dk

Assessment and measurement of exposure levels of organic contaminants in relevant environmental matrices, in human and animal tissue (internal exposure) and characterization and identification of possible sources for exposure. This work is based on concentration measurements at trace levels, on novel methods to measure chemical activities and on models that link exposure source, route of uptake and the eventual levels in humans and animals. For further information, please contact Pia Lassen, pla@dmu.dk or Katrin Vorkamp, kvo@dmu.dk.

New approaches for assessing contaminant accessibility and chemical activity. The accessibility of an contaminant is determined with depletive sampling techniques and used to predict how much of the contaminant in e.g. soil that can be released, be mobilized and taken up. The chemical activity is measured with novel equilibrium sampling techniques, it quantifies the energetic state of the contaminants and can be used to study and predict bioconcentration in various organisms. Finally, passive dosing is applied to provide well defined and constant exposure of poorly water soluble contaminants in various toxicity tests. An important goal of this research is to establish the link between chemical activity and various types of toxicity. For further information, please contact Philipp Mayer, phm@dmu.dk

In relation to consumer products, concentrations of xenobiotic compounds are being measured to estimate the human exposure and to ensure that the added amounts are in agreement with legal requirements. Special emphasis is given to the development of new analytical methods for determining chemicals posessing allergic and endocrine effects in cosmetic products, toys and cleaning agents. For further information, please contact Pia Lassen, pla@dmu.dk.

We are also investigating specific exposure situations, such as the exposure of pregnant women to brominated flame retardant and the potential transfer of these compounds to the child via the placenta. Exposure of the newborn child to persistent organic pollutants in breast milk is also investigated. Part of the exposure assessment and risk scenario is based on an extensive questionnaire and chemical analysis of external exposure (dust) and internal exposure (blood, placenta, umbilical cord blood, and breast milk) of pregnant women. For further information, please contact Katrin Vorkamp, kvo@dmu.dk.

Short abstracts of all ongoing projects can be seen here.