Working Group 2: Toxicology, Management and Risk Assessment of Chemicals
Lead: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Paul Scheepers
Co-Lead: Prof. Dr. Ben Nemery/Prof. Dr. João Paulo Teixeira
Working Group Members:
Working Group 2
Characterization of the potency of a real life exposure requires the toxicity data from chemical components but also relevant case-reports of intoxications, field and laboratory reconstruction of exposure scenarios. For risk management the risks to human health should be carefully weighed. Use of some product may be safe for professional use at a workplace but unsafe for use in a domestic setting. Use scenarios must be analyzed for setting priorities.1. Hazard identification and hazard assessment for real life exposures to environmental factors, including the use of marketed product formulations.2 Characterization of health risks for internal dose, derived from realistic exposure scenarios together with other WGs, WG2 will develop generic methods to collect field data from large numbers of exposed individuals using self-assessment strategies to characterize multiple chemical exposures. On-line questionnaire will be complemented with self-assessment strategies for hazard identification (with WG3). New strategies for crowd research will be developed such asthe use of indoor air sampling to chemically characterize complex exposures in the domestic environment. GPS tracking systems will be used to analyse activity patterns for identification of exposure factors in space and time. Internal exposures will be characterized by exhaled air analysis looking at hundreds of chemicals. If possible quantitative methods and chemical marker approaches will be added for exposure characterization of complex mixtures (with WG.1). WG2 will develop generic approaches for data mining of toxicity information on environmental factors. Such strategies will be developed for different data sources such as human data, experimental human-volunteer studies, population-based studies (in collaboration with WG.3), animal data, in vitro data and in silico test data complemented with a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (in collaboration with WG.5). WG will develop generic approaches based on a clear prioritization of measures to mitigate the human health risk of factors that contribute to the prevalence of morbidity of NCD. a) to eliminate or substitute products (introduce alternative chemicals); b) to segregate exposed individuals from the emission source. c) to optimize the intended use practice to achieve a higher level of safety. d) To achieve a higher level of protection.
