
Background & project objective
More than 13,000 chemicals have been found across different consumer product applications that are potentially harmful to human health, leading to significant health burden and related externalities worldwide. Of special concern are chemicals that show particularly hazardous properties, such as endocrine disrupting substances that can interfere with the human hormone system, with the potential to induce a wide range of negative health effects, and these can be found for example in various plastic and personal care product applications worldwide.
Despite the relevance of human health effects associated with exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in various product applications, a systematic analysis of the role of different exposure pathways and related toxicity effect potentials across the wider range of EDCs in different product applications is currently missing.
It is the aim of the project to develop a robust method for prioritizing applications and exposure pathways of EDCs with respect to human health impacts.
Project output
Main project output focuses on the questions proposed in below table.
Aspect | Specific question |
---|---|
EDC inventory | Which chemical substances are possibly EDCs that can lead to a variety of negative human health effects and that are found in one or more product applications leading to potentially relevant exposure? |
Products and pathways | What are the main product applications and exposure pathways that contribute to human health impacts of ECDs, and how can environmental processes, exposure pathways and human toxicological effects of these chemicals be combined in a consistent framework fulfilling boundary conditions for quantitative assessments? |
Coupling exposure & effects | How can exposure to EDCs in specific product applications be coupled with exposure and related effects from EDC emissions involved elsewhere in the life cycle of these product applications? |
Health metric | What is an appropriate population-level health damage metric (or more than one if necessary) for evaluating the overall human health impacts from EDCs via their application across the wider range of product applications and their related exposure pathways? |
Scaling up impacts | How can human health impacts associated with EDCs in specific product applications be scaled up to provide an overall estimate of health impacts of EDCs across the wider realm of consumer products? |