Kortenkamp Andreas
Brunel University London, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2014 Dec;19:105-11. doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2014.08.006. Epub 2014 Sep 19.
Today's chemical exposures are characterised by a widely spread blanket of contamination composed of myriads of chemicals, many of them endocrine disrupters, all at rather low levels. With their focus on considering single chemicals one by one, the approaches used by regulatory bodies worldwide for safety assessments of chemicals cannot keep up with these pollution patterns. A substantial challenge lies in the assessment of combination effects from large numbers of endocrine disrupters and other chemicals, all at low doses. We retrace the development of experimental and conceptual approaches required for assessing low dose mixtures, with an emphasis on work with endocrine disrupting chemicals. We find that nearly 20 years of research has produced good evidence for combination effects at levels around experimental thresholds. One obstacle in deciding on the relevance of this evidence is incomplete information about the range of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that make up combined exposures. These knowledge gaps need to be closed urgently, as is currently discussed under the heading of exposome research.
如今的化学物质暴露具有广泛传播的污染特征，由无数种化学物质构成一张污染网，其中许多是内分泌干扰物，且浓度都相当低。全球监管机构用于化学品安全评估的方法，侧重于逐个考虑单一化学物质，无法跟上这些污染模式。一个重大挑战在于评估大量低剂量内分泌干扰物和其他化学物质的联合效应。我们追溯了评估低剂量混合物所需的实验和概念方法的发展历程，重点是与内分泌干扰化学物质相关的研究。我们发现，近20年的研究已产生充分证据，证明在接近实验阈值的水平存在联合效应。在判定这一证据的相关性时，一个障碍是关于构成联合暴露的内分泌干扰化学物质范围的信息不完整。正如目前在暴露组研究这一主题下所讨论的，这些知识空白亟待填补。
