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Project title

Human Biomonitoring for Ireland – the HBM4IRE study

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Dublin (UCD)

Lead Applicant

Alison Connolly

Project Abstract

Chemicals are an intricate part of our daily lives that have significant societal and economic benefits associated with their use. However, increasing scientific evidence has demonstrated that significant adverse environmental and human health issues are associated with exposures to emerging and legacy chemicals, as well as chemical mixtures. This is particularly important with the global chemical production set to increase, with predictions expecting this production to double by 2030. Many EU initiatives, including the European Green Deal, and the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, aim for 'zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment' and highlights that developing a national strategy has benefits for managing the health and environmental risks associated with chemicals, which would assist regulators in developing new or refined policies to reduce or eliminate exposure to harmful chemicals. The chemicals levels in the Irish environment must be assessed so that effective control measures can be implemented to reduce their impact on the environment and people. Human biomonitoring (HBM) is described as the 'gold standard' of chemical risk assessment tools and provides a systematic assessment of the chemical exposure levels occurring from all routes of exposure (e.g. dietary, water intake, air). HBM has the capability to have a decisive role in the future EU warning and action system for chemicals by; identifying exposures to new and emerging chemicals of concern, informing temporal changes (e.g. legacy chemicals), gender-related risks, risks to vulnerable groups (e.g. children) and evaluating exposures to chemical mixtures, as well as providing essential information for regulatory agencies and policy-makers. Several EU countries have well-established national HBM programmes (e.g. Germany, France) that have demonstrated the potential for HBM to protect the environment and public health. In the past 10–15 years, significant advancements have been made in harmonising HBM studies (i.e. COPHES, DEMOCOPHES), in which Ireland was involved. These projects led to the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) initiative involving 30 countries, which coordinated and advanced harmonising HBM studies in Europe; these gains will be furthered in the Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals, a recently launched European initiative. The HBM4IRE (Human Biomonitoring for Ireland) project proposes to conduct a feasibility study to determine the prospect of having a national ongoing HBM programme in Ireland. The objective is to develop a chemical prioritisation assessment method, establish a chemical priority list specific to Ireland, and identify the opportunities and challenges for a national HBM programme. These outputs would also outline the potential contribution and impact HBM4IRE would have to support policy and decision-making and identify knowledge gaps concerning key and emerging chemical exposures. This proposed surveillance programme will also be developed to align with European studies, explicitly using protocols from the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) to further the recent advancements made in the harmonisation of HBM for assessing chemical exposures. HBM4IRE outputs will also align with EPA objectives to put science and innovative methods at the centre of environmental protection in Ireland and provide a clean, protected environment for our health, well-being and quality of life.

Grant Approved

�97,898.59

Research Hub

Healthy Environment

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

31/03/2023

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2024