The EU-funded project, PANORAMIX, coordinated by the DTU National Food Institute indicates that mixtures of man-made chemicals present in human blood or breast milk may affect reproductive health and child development - even when individual substances are within accepted safety levels.
In everyday life, people are exposed to many chemicals at the same time. These exposures come from water, food, and the surrounding environment.
While chemical risk is typically assessed one substance at a time, new results from the PANORAMIX project show that this approach does not capture the full picture.
Using a combination of chemical profiling and effect-based bioassays, the researchers assessed real-life mixtures across environmental, food, and human samples.
The results suggest that combined exposures can lead to measurable biological effects that are not explained by known chemicals alone, indicating that current assessments may underestimate the overall risk.
“Most of the mixture effects we measure in real-life samples cannot be traced back to the chemicals we currently monitor. Relying only on targeted chemical monitoring systematically underestimates the actual risk,” says Professor Anne Marie Vinggaard, DTU National Food Institute. She continues:
“Combining effect-based bioassays with chemical profiling is the way forward.”
Widespread exposure but few key drivers of risk
A large number of chemicals - including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and industrial compounds - were identified in environmental samples, foods, and humans, including breast milk and umbilical cord blood. This confirms a continuous exposure pathway from the environment to people, also during the early stages of life.
The study also shows that environmental chemicals in mixtures act according to the principle of concentration addition, meaning that even low levels can combine into measurable biological effects.
A limited number of known substances contribute substantially to the overall risk, including PFAS, bisphenol A, and legacy pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs. Although many of these are already restricted, they remain present in the environment and continue to contribute to human exposure.
Epidemiological analyses further indicate that prenatal exposure to PFAS is associated with lower birth weight, while higher exposure to phthalates may be associated with higher ADHD scores in children, underlining the relevance for public health.
The results are directly relevant to EU chemical legislation and support the inclusion of mixture effects and combined methodological approaches in future risk assessment.
-
FACTS
PANORAMIX
Title: Chemical mixtures from environment to humans: a One Health approach to risk assessment
- Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call (Grant Agreement No. 101036631)
- Coordinated by DTU National Food Institute
- 11 partners from 6 European countries
- Duration: 2021–2026
PANORAMIX combined targeted and non-targeted chemical analysis, in vitro bioassays and epidemiological data from up to 10 European countries to assess the effects of chemical mixtures across environment, food and humans.
Read more
Read the latest publication from the project in Environ. Sci. Technol.: Determination of Chemical Mixtures in Environmental, Food, and Human Samples Using High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry-Based Suspect Screening Approaches
Find all publications and additional information on the PANORAMIX-project website