ETC HE Report 2023/13: Estimating the burden of disease due to lead, PFAS, phthalates, cadmium, pyrethroids and bisphenol A using HBM4EU data – test of feasibility and first results for selected countries

This report presents a feasibility study to estimate the environmental burden of disease due to a set of chemicals in selected European countries for the year 2021. It contains case studies on lead, PFAS, phthalates, cadmium, pyrethroids and bisphenol A. A total of 15 risk-outcome-pairs were considered. Where possible, the aim was to calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). In addition, data from the HBM4EU-project was used to ensure that exposure was estimated consistently across Europe. It was shown that a significant burden of disease can be attributed to the 6 analyzed chemicals in the selected European countries. However, despite a standardised methodological approach, the report identifies and discusses a number of limitations, particularly due to varying availability and quality of input data, which hampers the overall comparability of the results.

18 Jan 2024

Dietrich Plass (UBA Germany), Sarah Kienzler (UBA Germany), Jos Bessems (VITO Belgium), Jurgen Buekers (VITO Belgium), Jirka Cops (VITO Belgium), Anthony Purece (VITO Belgium), Anton Beloconi (Swiss TPH), Penelope Vounatsou (Swiss TPH), Kaja Widmer (Swiss TPH), Gerardo Sanchez (EEA contact)

The report presents a feasibility study to estimate the environmental burden of disease (EBD) attributable to 6 selected chemicals or chemical groups in selected European countries for the year 2021. It contains case studies on lead, PFAS, phthalates, cadmium, pyrethroids and bisphenol A. 15 risk-outcome-pairs were considered, for which disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were calculated wherever possible. A further prerequisite was the use of human biomonitoring (HBM) data gathered within the HBM4EU-project to allow a comparable exposure assessment.

Overall, the experience from the analyses supported the feasibility of using HBM data for the population-based exposure assessments in EBD studies. The results show that a significant burden of disease can be attributed to the 6 analyzed chemicals in the selected European countries. Nonetheless, we have also experienced that particularly the exposure coverage with regard to countries, sex and age groups was still not comprehensive and did not allow a full range of European estimates. Further limitations relate to varying availability and quality of input data. In addition, different levels of evidence for the selected risk-outcome-pairs impaired the overall comparability of the results. This clearly indicates the need to improve the baseline input data for burden of disease assessments related to chemicals.

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