Special Lunch Session - May 23

Cumulative risk assessment for pesticides: Which way to go ?

Organisers: Jacob Van Klaveren (RIVM), Liesbeth Jacxsens (UGent), Andreja Rajkovic (UGent)

Every day, we are exposed to a mixture of multiple chemicals via food intake, inhalation and dermal contact. The risk to health that may result from this depends on how the effects of different chemicals in the mixture combine, and whether there is any synergism or antagonism between them. The number of different combinations of chemicals in mixtures is infinite and an efficient test strategy for mixtures is lacking. Furthermore, there is a societal need to reduce animal testing, which is the current practice in safety testing of chemicals. In this session the major outcomes of the EUROMIX project (EU Horizon 2020 - https://www.euromixproject.eu/) will be presented and discussed.

The overall objective of EUROMIX was to establish and to disseminate new, efficient, validated test strategies for the toxicity of chemicals in a mixture aiming to deliver refined information for future safety assessment of chemicals. This includes exposure assessment via multiple exposure routes.

Specific objects were:

  • Determine a refined grouping strategy for cumulative assessment groups, including multiple chemical resulting in the same effect in human body.
  • Establish criteria for prioritisation of chemicals for carrying out mixture testing.
  • Verify the reliability of in silico methods and in vitro bioassays against in vivo animal tests.
  • Determine how to extrapolate the results of in vitro bioassays and in silico models to humans.
  • Develop harmonised tools and models for performing realistic assessment of chemical mixtures.

The aim of the lunch session is to exchange information, advise, and knowledge on cumulative risk assessment for pesticides, toxicological research and risk benefit studies and to come up with a common science-based memorandum containing pressing topics for further action related to cumulative risk assessment.

Partners of the EUROMIX project will be encouraged to submit abstracts of their research in the relevant IUPAC sessions.