Person:
Apel, Petra

Lade...
Profilbild
E-Mail-Adresse
Geburtsdatum
Forschungsvorhaben
Berufsbeschreibung
Nachname
Apel
Vorname
Petra
Name

Suchergebnisse

Gerade angezeigt 1 - 5 von 5
  • Veröffentlichung
    Substitutes mimic the exposure behaviour of REACH regulated phthalates
    (2021) Apel, Petra; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Lange, Rosa; Lemke, Nora; Debiak, Malgorzata; Murawski, Aline; Weber, Till
    The population is constantly exposed to potentially harmful substances present in the environment, including inter alia food and drinking water, consumer products, and indoor air. Human biomonitoring (HBM) is a valuable tool to determine the integral, internal exposure of the general population, including vulnerable subgroups, to provide the basis for risk assessment and policy advice. The German HBM system comprises of five pillars: (1) the development of suitable analytical methods for new substances of concern, (2) cross-sectional population-representative German Environmental Surveys (GerES), (3) time trend analyses using archived samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB), (4) the derivation of health-based guidance values as a risk assessment tool, and (5) transfer of data into the European cooperation network HBM4EU. The goal of this paper is to present the complementary elements of the German HBM system and to show its strengths and limitations on the example of plasticizers. Plasticizers have been identified by EU services and HBM4EU partners as priority substances for chemical policy at EU level. Using the complementary elements of the German HBM system, the internal exposure to classical phthalates and novel alternative plasticizers can be reliably monitored. It is shown that market changes, due to regulation of certain phthalates and the rise of substitutes, are rapidly reflected in the internal exposure of the population. It was shown that exposure to DEHP, DiBP, DnBP, and BBzP decreased considerably, whereas exposure to the novel substitutes such as DPHP, DEHTP, and Hexamoll®DINCH has increased significantly. While health-based guidance values for several phthalates (esp. DnBP, DiBP, DEHP) were exceeded quite often at the turn of the millennium, exceedances today have become rarer. Still, also the latest GerES reveals the ubiquitous and concurrent exposures to many plasticizers. Of concern is that the youngest children showed the highest exposures to most of the investigated plasticizers and in some cases their levels of DiBP and DnBP still exceeded health-based guidance values. Over the last years, mixture exposures are increasingly recognized as relevant, especially if the toxicological modes of action are similar. This is supported by a cumulative risk assessment for four endocrine active phthalates which confirms the still concerning cumulative exposure in many young children. Given the adverse health effects of some phthalates and the limited toxicological knowledge of substitutes, exposure reduction and surveillance are needed on German and EU-level. Substitutes need to be monitored, to intervene if exposures are threatening to exceed acceptable levels, or if new toxicological data question their appropriateness. It is strongly recommended to reconsider the use of plastics and plasticizers. © 2021 Published by Elsevier GmbH.
  • Veröffentlichung
    The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU): Human biomonitoring guidance values (HBM-GVs) for the aprotic solvents N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone (NEP)
    (2021) Apel, Petra; Gerofke, Antje; David, Madlen; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Lange, Rosa
    Toxicologically and/or epidemiologically derived guidance values referring to the internal exposure of humans are a prerequisite for an easy to use health-based interpretation of human biomonitoring (HBM) results. The European Joint Programme HBM4EU derives such values, named human biomonitoring guidance values (HBM-GVs), for priority substances which could be of regulatory relevance for policy makers and have been identified by experts of the participating countries, ministries, agencies and stakeholders at EU and national level. NMP and NEP are such substances for which unresolved policy relevant issues should be clarified by targeted research. Since widespread exposure of the general population in Germany to NMP and NEP was shown for the age groups 3-17 years and 20-29 years, further investigations on exposure to NMP and NEP in other European countries are warranted. The HBM-GVs derived for both solvents focus on developmental toxicity as decisive endpoint. They amount for the sum of the two specific urinary NMP metabolites 5-HNMP and 2-HMSI and likewise of the two specific urinary NEP metabolites 5-HNEP and 2-HESI to 10 mg/L for children and 15 mg/L for adolescents/adults. The values were determined following a consultation process on the value proposals within HBM4EU. A health-based risk assessment was performed using the newly derived HBM-GVGenPop and exposure data from two recent studies from Germany. The risk assessment revealed that even when considering the combined exposure to both substances by applying the Hazard Index approach, the measured concentrations are below the HBM-GVGenPop in all cases investigated (i.e., children, adolescents and young adults). © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.
  • Veröffentlichung
    How to use human biomonitoring in chemical risk assessment: methodological aspects, recommendations, and lessons learned from HBM4EU
    (2023) Santonen, Tiina; Mahiout, Selma; Apel, Petra; Alvito, Paula; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Gerofke, Antje; Lange, Rosa
    One of the aims of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative, HBM4EU, was to provide examples of and good practices for the effective use of human biomonitoring (HBM) data in human health risk assessment (RA). The need for such information is pressing, as previous research has indicated that regulatory risk assessors generally lack knowledge and experience of the use of HBM data in RA. By recognising this gap in expertise, as well as the added value of incorporating HBM data into RA, this paper aims to support the integration of HBM into regulatory RA. Based on the work of the HBM4EU, we provide examples of different approaches to including HBM in RA and in estimations of the environmental burden of disease (EBoD), the benefits and pitfalls involved, information on the important methodological aspects to consider, and recommendations on how to overcome obstacles. The examples are derived from RAs or EBoD estimations made under the HBM4EU for the following HBM4EU priority substances: acrylamide, o-toluidine of the aniline family, aprotic solvents, arsenic, bisphenols, cadmium, diisocyanates, flame retardants, hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)], lead, mercury, mixture of per-/poly-fluorinated compounds, mixture of pesticides, mixture of phthalates, mycotoxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and the UV-filter benzophenone-3. Although the RA and EBoD work presented here is not intended to have direct regulatory implications, the results can be useful for raising awareness of possibly needed policy actions, as newly generated HBM data from HBM4EU on the current exposure of the EU population has been used in many RAs and EBoD estimations. © 2023 The Author(s)
  • Veröffentlichung
    Human biomonitoring initiative (HBM4EU) - Strategy to derive human biomonitoring guidance values (HBM-GVs) for health risk assessment
    (2020) Apel, Petra; Rouselle, Christophe; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Lange, Rosa
    The European Joint Program "HBM4EU" is a joint effort of 30 countries and the European Environment Agency, co-funded under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program, for advancing and implementing human biomonitoring (HBM) on a European scale and for providing scientific evidence for chemical policy making. One important outcome will be a Europe-wide improvement and harmonization of health risk assessment following the coordinated derivation or update of health-related guidance values referring to the internal body burden. These guidance values - named HBM guidance values or HBM-GVs - can directly be compared with HBM data. They are derived within HBM4EU for priority substances identified by the HBM4EU chemicals prioritization strategy based on existing needs to answer policy relevant questions as raised by national and EU policy makers. HBM-GVs refer to both the general population and occupationally exposed adults. Reports including the detailed reasoning for the values' proposals are subjected to a consultation process within all partner countries of the consortium to reach a broad scientific consensus on the derivation approach and on the derived values. The final HBM-GVs should be applied first within the HBM4EU project, but may also be useful for regulators and risk assessors outside this project. The subsequent adoption of derived HBM-GVs at EU-level needs to be discussed and decided within the responsible EU bodies. Nevertheless, the establishment of HBM-GVs as part of HBM4EU is already a step forward in strengthening HBM-based policy efforts for public and occupational health. The strategy for deriving HBM-GVs which is based on already existing approaches from the German HBM Commission, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) as well as from the US-based scientific consultant Summit Toxicology, the allocation of a level of confidence to the derived values, and the consultation process within the project are comprehensively described to enlighten the work accomplished under the HBM4EU initiative. © 2020 The Author(s).
  • Veröffentlichung
    Corrigendum to "Substitutes mimic the exposure behaviour of REACH regulated phthalates - A review of the German HBM system on the example of plasticizers"
    (2022) Apel, Petra; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Lange, Rosa; Lemke, Nora; Debiak, Malgorzata; Murawski, Aline; Weber, Till