About the Project | Partners  | Services  | Home > Structure > Public > About the Project    About the Project   In recent years there has been a growing interest in the significance of reported declines in human fecundity. Since many chemicals have been shown experimentally to mimic the activities of reproductive hormones, the potential exists that exposure to environmental chemicals has an influence on human reproductive endpoints. A particular aspect that has received relatively little attention is the possible impact of chemical exposure on human fecundity. In particular, it is unknown to what extent food, acting as a “vector” of synthetic endocrine disrupters, impacts on fecundity. So far, studies have focused mainly on the conventional “priority” endocrine disruptors: pesticides, heavy metals, and toxic environmental contaminants of industrial origin. One large class of chemical that has received little attention is that of pharmaceutical products (PPs), which are used in quantities comparable with those of agrochemicals. Currently, very little is known of the occurrence, fate and effects of PPs in the environment. Our understanding of the possible transmission of PPs into the food chain is also very rudimentary, and even less is known on how such food affects human fecundity. Part of the problem arises from the scarcity of simple and efficient methods for cleaning up and concentrating PPs from environmental and food samples, and from the lack of diagnostic assays that can handle large numbers of samples rapidly and inexpensively. In this project we intend to integrate research groups from diverse disciplines (risk assessors managers, clinical epidemiologists, endocrinologists, biochemists, as well as experts in biochemical and chemical diagnostics) to achieve a better understanding of the extent of the problem. The strategic approach of the project is to develop and employ validated methods for screening and testing PPs that pose high risk to human fecundity, to determine their adverse effects and their origins and fates, as well as their mechanisms of action, to assess the risks they pose, and to propose risk-management policies. These methods, once developed and validated should enable us to identify and characterize the endocrine activity of PPs, to highlight PP compounds that affect fecundity (high-priority PPs), to present the information to the public via knowledge pools, and should help us to devise strategies to eliminate or minimize these effects and risks. For further Information please view our brochure . Metainfo: Author: Vinnie Altstein; Copyright: Food & Fecundity; Published by: Max Harnoncourt (maxharn) factID: 182059.3 (...history); published on 31 Jan. 2005 17:06   Shortcuts: Structure  >  Public

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