HBM4EU E-waste study: Assessing persistent organic pollutants in blood, silicone wristbands, and settled dust among E-waste recycling workers in Europe.

E-waste recycling is an increasingly important activity that contributes to reducing the burden of end-of-life electronic and electrical apparatus and allows for the EU's transition to a circular economy. This study investigated the exposure levels of selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in workers from e-waste recycling facilities across Europe. The concentrations of seven polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and eight polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) congeners were measured by GC-MS. Workers were categorized into five groups based on the type of e-waste handled and two control groups. Generalized linear models were used to assess the determinants of exposure levels among workers. POPs levels were also assessed in dust and silicone wristbands (SWB) and compared with serum. Four PCB congeners (CB 118, 138, 153, and 180) were frequently detected in serum regardless of worker's category. With the exception of CB 118, all tested PCBs were significantly higher in workers compared to the control group. Controls working in the same company as occupationally exposed (Within control group), also displayed higher levels of serum CB 180 than non-industrial controls with no known exposures to these chemicals (Outwith controls) (p < 0.05). BDE 209 was the most prevalent POP in settled dust (16 µg/g) and SWB (220 ng/WB). Spearman correlation revealed moderate to strong positive correlations between SWB and dust. Increased age and the number of years smoked cigarettes were key determinants for workers exposure. Estimated daily intake through dust ingestion revealed that ΣPCB was higher for both the 50th (0.03 ng/kg bw/day) and 95th (0.09 ng/kg bw/day) percentile exposure scenarios compared to values reported for the general population. This study is one of the first to address the occupational exposure to PCBs and PBDEs in Europe among e-waste workers through biomonitoring combined with analysis of settled dust and SWB. Our findings suggest that e-waste workers may face elevated PCB exposure and that appropriate exposure assessments are needed to establish effective mitigation strategies.

Evaluation of environmental contamination in beeswax products.

Beeswaxes are used as a coating agent or as a wrapping material for food products making them potentially ingested by consumers. There is no regulation yet in Europe giving maximum levels of contaminants in this type of product. Nevertheless, being a natural product, they are exposed to environmental pollution, thus it appears necessary to establish their contamination rate in order to evaluate potential human exposure. In this study, a method of extraction of different environmental contaminants including pesticides, phthalates, PAHs and phenols was developed. Based on a hot Soxhlet extraction, followed by cleaning steps, the method was validated for the quantitation of the cited contaminants by LC-MS/MS and GC-(MS)/MS. Three different types of waxes were analyzed including typical white waxes (Cera Alba) and yellow waxes (Cera Flava). It was shown that all waxes had the presence of at least one contaminant and that phthalates, in particular DEHP, was present in all beeswax samples. Insecticides were found in majority among all the classes of pesticides screened. The yellow waxes were found to be contaminated with the highest rates of PAHs (60%), pesticides (75%) and phenols (40%). The detection frequency of PAHs, in contrast to phthalates, was the lowest for all the types of waxes combined.

Exposure of children to brominated flame retardants and heavy metals in Morocco: Urine and blood levels in association with global cytosine and adenine methylation.

Persistent pollutants, namely brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and heavy metals, are compounds that are added to a wide range of products and materials for preventing ignition, increasing the functionality of materials or improving their performance, e.g. electric conductivity. The exposure of children might consequently be inferred, through indoor dust and hand-to-mouth or toy-chewing behaviors. The current study is aimed at assessing the exposure of Moroccan children to BFRs and heavy metal elements, and evaluating their associations with global DNA methylation. First, parents responded to a questionnaire pertaining to children's lifestyle, then blood and urine samples were collected from (n = 93) children aged between 5 and 11 years for biomonitoring and DNA methylation analysis. BFRs were detected in 54.84% of samples with a median concentration of 0.01 nmol/mL (range: 0.004-0.051 nmol/mL) while metal elements were detected in more than 90% of samples. BFRs showed no variations with global DNA methylation, unlike metal elements, which revealed significant associations with global DNA methylation markers, namely 5-mC, 5-hmC and N6-mA levels. Moroccan children may be exposed to flame retardants and heavy metals through several routes. Further research is required to assess the exposure and the health impacts of environmental pollutants and ultimately protect the Moroccan population by the prevention of adverse health effects.

Innovative analytical methodologies for characterizing chemical exposure with a view to next-generation risk assessment.

The chemical burden on the environment and human population is increasing. Consequently, regulatory risk assessment must keep pace to manage, reduce, and prevent adverse impacts on human and environmental health associated with hazardous chemicals. Surveillance of chemicals of known, emerging, or potential future concern, entering the environment-food-human continuum is needed to document the reality of risks posed by chemicals on ecosystem and human health from a one health perspective, feed into early warning systems and support public policies for exposure mitigation provisions and safe and sustainable by design strategies. The use of less-conventional sampling strategies and integration of full-scan, high-resolution mass spectrometry and effect-directed analysis in environmental and human monitoring programmes have the potential to enhance the screening and identification of a wider range of chemicals of known, emerging or potential future concern. Here, we outline the key needs and recommendations identified within the European Partnership for Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) project for leveraging these innovative methodologies to support the development of next-generation chemical risk assessment.

Exposure to bisphenol A in European women from 2007 to 2014 using human biomonitoring data - The European Joint Programme HBM4EU.

BACKGROUND: Bisphenol A (BPA; or 4,4'-isopropylidenediphenol) is an endocrine disrupting chemical. It was widely used in a variety of plastic-based manufactured products for several years. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently reduced the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for BPA by 20,000 times due to concerns about immune-toxicity. OBJECTIVE: We used human biomonitoring (HBM) data to investigate the general level of BPA exposure from 2007 to 2014 of European women aged 18-73 years (n = 4,226) and its determinants. METHODS: Fifteen studies from 12 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) were included in the BPA Study protocol developed within the European Joint Programme HBM4EU. Seventy variables related to the BPA exposure were collected through a rigorous post-harmonization process. Linear mixed regression models were used to investigate the determinants of total urine BPA in the combined population. RESULTS: Total BPA was quantified in 85-100 % of women in 14 out of 15 contributing studies. Only the Austrian PBAT study (Western Europe), which had a limit of quantification 2.5 to 25-fold higher than the other studies (LOQ=2.5 µg/L), found total BPA in less than 5 % of the urine samples analyzed. The geometric mean (GM) of total urine BPA ranged from 0.77 to 2.47 µg/L among the contributing studies. The lowest GM of total BPA was observed in France (Western Europe) from the ELFE subset (GM=0.77 µg/L (0.98 µg/g creatinine), n = 1741), and the highest levels were found in Belgium (Western Europe) and Greece (Southern Europe), from DEMOCOPHES (GM=2.47 µg/L (2.26 µg/g creatinine), n = 129) and HELIX-RHEA (GM=2.47 µg/L (2.44 µg/g creatinine), n = 194) subsets, respectively. One hundred percent of women in 14 out of 15 data collections in this study exceeded the health-based human biomonitoring guidance value for the general population (HBM-GVGenPop) of 0.0115 µg total BPA/L urine derived from the updated EFSA's BPA TDI. Variables related to the measurement of total urine BPA and those related to the main socio-demographic characteristics (age, height, weight, education, smoking status) were collected in almost all studies, while several variables related to BPA exposure factors were not gathered in most of the original studies (consumption of beverages contained in plastic bottles, consumption of canned food or beverages, consumption of food in contact with plastic packaging, use of plastic film or plastic containers for food, having a plastic floor covering in the house, use of thermal paper…). No clear determinants of total urine BPA concentrations among European women were found. A broader range of data planned for collection in the original questionnaires of the contributing studies would have resulted in a more thorough investigation of the determinants of BPA exposure in European women. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the urgent need for action to further reduce exposure to BPA to protect the population, as is already the case in the European Union. The study also underscores the importance of pre-harmonizing HBM design and data for producing comparable data and interpretable results at a European-wide level, and to increase HBM uptake by regulatory agencies.