23 November 2020
Exposome-NL researcher Roel Vermeulen (Julius Center and Utrecht University) has been granted a major European Horizon 2020 project and is also involved in another Horizon 2020 project. Both projects are connected with research into substances that are harmful to our health. A brief impression of the projects is provided below.
Plastics in the environment sooner or later falls apart into ever smaller particles known as microplastics and nanoplastics. Although scientists can detect them everywhere in the environment these days, little is currently known about their effects on human health. Together with fellow scientists and four sister projects, project coordinator Roel Vermeulen will be developing a strategy for assessing the health risks. Vermeulen: ‘We will be focusing mainly on exposure and health effects during pregnancy, in the womb and in early life.’
I am convinced that we can make an important contribution to the question as to whether plastic particles are harmful to the developing child
In the AURORA project the researchers will focus on (unborn) children, as this phase of life is crucial for development and health at a later age. In addition, unborn and young children are more vulnerable to environmental pollution. ‘I am convinced that we can make an important contribution to the question as to whether plastic particles are harmful to the developing child’, says Vermeulen. ‘Researchers at AURORA were the first to demonstrate that small particles can reach the foetal side of the placenta, and recent research by Juliette Legler shows that this may also apply to microplastics and nanoplastics.’ The scientists will measure exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics in tissues that are relevant to early life development such as the placenta, umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, meconium (first stool) and foetal tissue. ‘The measurement techniques that we use to measure the chemical fingerprints of plastic particles in tissues are unique and were developed within the Gravitation programme Exposome-NL.’
The aim of the project RISK-HUNT3R is to better protect the population against health effects caused by (chronic) exposure to chemicals. To this end, scientists are developing a reliable, efficient and cost-effective approach to assess the safety of chemical substances. The researchers are doing so without the use of laboratory animals. The main innovation of RISK-HUNT3R is a full human-centric risk assessment strategy. Vermeulen: ‘Recently, in the journal Science, we called for a drastic innovation of the risk assessment of chemicals both pre- and post-marketing. We need to improve methods and achieve better integration between exposures and health effects in the experimental world and the real world.’ Among other things, the scientists are doing this by establishing a link with exposome research. This involves measuring thousands of chemicals in large groups of people and studying which changes occur in the biological system.
The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated seventy percent of the chronic disease burden. Where we live, what we eat, how much we exercise, the air we breathe and whom we associate with; all of these environmental factors play a role. The combination of these factors over the life course is called the exposome. There is general (scientific) consensus that understanding more about the exposome will help explain the current burden of disease and that it provides entry points for prevention and ...
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