Nano-based smart pesticide formulations: Emerging opportunities for agriculture

Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis spp.) as sentinel organisms in coastal pollution monitoring: A review

This Guidance document describes harmonised risk assessment methodologies for combined exposure to multiple chemicals for all relevant areas within EFSA's remit, i.e. human health, animal health and ecological areas. First, a short review of the key terms, scientific basis for combined exposure risk assessment and approaches to assessing (eco)toxicology is given, including existing frameworks for these risk assessments. This background was evaluated, resulting in a harmonised framework for risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals. The framework is based on the risk assessment steps (problem formulation, exposure assessment, hazard identification and characterisation, and risk characterisation including uncertainty analysis), with tiered and stepwise approaches for both whole mixture approaches and component-based approaches. Specific considerations are given to component-based approaches including the grouping of chemicals into common assessment groups, the use of dose addition as a default assumption, approaches to integrate evidence of interactions and the refinement of assessment groups. Case studies are annexed in this guidance document to explore the feasibility and spectrum of applications of the proposed methods and approaches for human and animal health and ecological risk assessment. The Scientific Committee considers that this Guidance is fit for purpose for risk assessments of combined exposure to multiple chemicals and should be applied in all relevant areas of EFSA's work. Future work and research are recommended.

/pdf/guidance-on-harmonised-methodologies-for-human-health-animal-2azi1b969v.pdf

Guidance on harmonised methodologies for human health, animal health and ecological risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals

Unpredicted human safety events in clinical trials for new drugs are costly in terms of human health and money. The drug discovery industry attempts to minimize those events with diligent preclinical safety testing. Current standard practices are good at preventing toxic compounds from being tested in the clinic; however, false negative preclinical toxicity results are still a reality. Continual improvement must be pursued in the preclinical realm. Higher-quality therapies can be brought forward with more information about potential toxicities and associated mechanisms. The zebrafish model is a bridge between in vitro assays and mammalian in vivo studies. This model is powerful in its breadth of application and tractability for research. In the past two decades, our understanding of disease biology and drug toxicity has grown significantly owing to thousands of studies on this tiny vertebrate. This Review summarizes challenges and strengths of the model, discusses the 3Rs value that it can deliver, highlights translatable and untranslatable biology, and brings together reports from recent studies with zebrafish focusing on new drug discovery toxicology.

Use of Zebrafish in Drug Discovery Toxicology

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/17467/1/FullText.pdf

Current EU research activities on combined exposure to multiple chemicals

Toxicokinetic models and related tools in environmental risk assessment of chemicals.

Generic physiologically-based toxicokinetic modelling for fish: Integration of environmental factors and species variability.

https://hal-ineris.archives-ouvertes.fr/ineris-03319073/document

Investigating combined toxicity of binary mixtures in bees: Meta-analysis of laboratory tests, modelling, mechanistic basis and implications for risk assessment.

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2015.EN-861

Audrey Grech

Papers

Toxicokinetic models and related tools in environmental risk assessment of chemicals.

Generic physiologically-based toxicokinetic modelling for fish: Integration of environmental factors and species variability.

Investigating combined toxicity of binary mixtures in bees: Meta-analysis of laboratory tests, modelling, mechanistic basis and implications for risk assessment.

Data collection on Combined Toxicity of Multiple Chemicals for Animal Health and Ecological Risk Assessment

Individual datasets investigating combined toxicity of binary mixtures in bees from laboratory tests