HBM4EU

The European Joint Programme, entitled HBM4EU, will generate knowledge to inform the safe management of chemicals and so protect human health in Europe. We used human biomonitoring to understand human exposure to chemicals and resulting health impacts and communicated with policy makers to ensure that our results were exploited in the design of new chemicals policies and the evaluation of existing measures. This initiative contributed directly to the improvement of health and well-being for all citizens, by investigating how exposure to chemicals affects the health of different groups, such as children, pregnant women, foetuses and workers. Research investigated how factors such as behaviour, lifestyle and socio-economic status influence internal exposure to chemicals across the EU population. This knowledge was fed directly into policy making to reduce chemical exposure and protect human health.

Key objectives included:

• • Harmonise procedures and tools for HBM at EU level, notably with regards to sample collection, analysis and data interpretation;

  • Provide and where missing generate internal exposure data and link this data to aggregated exposure and the related exposure pathways;

  • Develop novel methods to identify human internal exposure to environmental and e.g. occupational chemicals and establish the causal links with human health effects; and

  • Provide policy-makers and the general public with science based knowledge on the health risks associated with chemicals exposure.

  • Improve the regulatory risk assessment of chemicals in EU with the effective use of human biomonitoring.

The METO unit contributed to the workpackage 12 “From HBM to exposure”, and more specifically to the task 12.1 “Adaptation and use of integrated exposure models and spatial modelling” and task 12.2 “Inverse toxicokinetic modelling to estimate exposure from HBM”. In task 12.1, the METO unit linked HBM data, environmental monitoring and exposure modelling in a risk management perspective. This approach was applied to the prioritized compounds in several countries according to territorial contamination contexts and availability of existing environmental data. In task 12.2, the METO unit developed a reverse dosimetry approach based on HBM data, individual information reported in questionnaires when available and physiologically based toxicokinetic models accounting for the processes that the chemical undergoes in the human body. We used this modelling approach to compare the exposure of the populations in different countries in Europe. In accordance with the objectives of the prioritized substances groups, we applied this methodology to perfluorinated compounds and priority pesticides that were identified by the chemical mixtures group.