Descrizione del progetto
Un innovativo strumento di biomonitoraggio per la valutazione dell’esposizione a sostanze tossiche
Il biomonitoraggio umano è un potente strumento impiegato per valutare l’esposizione di una popolazione alle sostanze tossiche. I dati raccolti sono essenziali per valutare l’impatto sulla salute e per sostenere le politiche ambientali e sanitarie nei programmi di salute pubblica. Tuttavia, gli attuali studi in questo ambito hanno dei limiti che devono essere superati attraverso nuovi approcci. Il progetto NTS-EXPOSURE, finanziato dall’UE, si propone quindi di sviluppare metodi analitici di screening non mirati che siano in grado di rilevare nuovi biomarcatori delle acque reflue e di valutare il consumo collettivo o l’esposizione a sostanze tossiche. Per farlo, propone un nuovo approccio chiamato epidemiologia delle acque reflue come strumento alternativo di biomonitoraggio. Il lavoro contribuirà ad ottenere informazioni vitali per informare le autorità sullo stato di salute della comunità.
Obiettivo
Humans are continuously exposed to toxicants by different routes, with potentially adverse effects on human health. Monitoring population exposure is a crucial part of public health programs and human biomonitoring (HBM) is the most widely used and powerful tool to evaluate the exposure of a population. These data are vital for health impact assessment and to support environmental and health policy-making in public health programs. However, novel approaches are needed in order to give additional information on exposure at population level and overcome the limitations of HBM studies. In this project, an innovative approach, called Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE), is proposed as an alternative “biomonitoring tool” for the retrieval of epidemiological information from wastewater through the analysis of specific human urinary metabolites (biomarkers). Although WBE has been studied the last fifteen years, its application has been limited to target analytical methods and a few classes of compounds (i.e. illicit drugs). New methodologies such as the powerful high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) technique can opens new perspectives in the WBE field. The unique characteristics of HRMS combined with the potential of the WBE approach can give us the capability to provide valuable information for public health. Indeed, influent wastewater contains a wide range of chemical information about biological processes of the human body, which can be explored by the latest advances of HRMS and provide crucial data. The main objective is to develop non-target screening analytical methods based on HRMS coupled to liquid and gas chromatography that can detect new wastewater biomarkers and assess the collective consumption or exposure to toxicants. This project can establish and implement an integrated chemical analytical-epidemiological approach for the acquirement of crucial information and inform authorities and public health organizations on community health status.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
10561 Athina
Grecia