We are exposed to more than 30,000 chemicals in the thousands of products we use on a daily basis. Which fraction of these chemicals enters our bloodstream and what are the associated risks?
This seminar will present new high throughput methods to characterize the population exposure to these hundreds of thousands chemical-product combinations used in personal care products, cleaning and home maintenance product, or building materials. We demonstrate the application of these tools for parabens in cosmetics compared to urine biomarkers, showing the interest of natural oils as body lotion or moisturizer. We also discuss the potential human health risks associated with different alternatives to phthalates (DEHP) as plasticizer in vinyl flooring, and with more than 9000 product-chemicals combinations. This works provides scientific bases a) to identify which chemical need to be substituted in priority, b) to ensure that alternatives are effectively better, c) to select new chemicals to search for in blood, urine or wastewater, and d) to inform the international management of chemical in products.
Dr Olivier Jolliet is Full Professor in life cycle impact and risk modeling at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, and presently a visiting professor at the UQ Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS). With an MS and PhD in physics, his teaching and research aim to a) compare the life cycle human health risks and benefits of chemicals in consumer products and foods, and b) model population exposure, intake fractions and pharmacokinetics of chemicals at global level. He pioneered the incorporation of near-field exposure to consumer products, defining the product intake fraction as an adequate metrics to assess exposures, using large data bases for chemical screening in Alternatives Assessment, Life Cycle Assessment and Risk Assessment. He co-initiated the UN Life Cycle Initiative and is one of the lead author of the UN Environment Global Chemical Outlook.