Characterisation of the risk associated with chronic lifetime exposure to mixture of chemical hazards: case study of trace elements

Abstract

Risk assessment methodology, mostly commonly used, faces the complexity of the environment. Populations are exposed to multiple sources of chemicals throughout life and the chemical mixtures they are exposed change during time (lifestyle factors, regulatory decisions, etc). The risk assessment needs to consider these dynamics and the evolution of the body with age, in order to refine the exposure assessment to chemicals and to predict the health impact of these exposures. This review highlights the latest methodologies developed to improve risk assessment, especially cor heavy metals. The methodologies aim to better describe the chemical toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic as well as the exposure assessment. Human Biomonitoring (HBM) data give great opportunities to link biomarkers of exposure with an adverse effect. Physiologically-Based Toxicokinetic (PBTK) models are more and more used to simulate the evolution of biomarkers in organisms, considering the external exposures and the physiological evolutions. PBTK models may also be used to determine the routes of exposure or to predict the impacts of schemes of exposure. The major limit is the integration of several chemicals in mixture with common adverse effects and the interactions between them.

Keywords:

• Risk assessment
• lifetime exposure
• heavy metals
• physiologically based toxicokinetic modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Anses and INRAE (thesis scholarship co-financing agreement) and the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101057014.