Economic benefits of methylmercury exposure control in Europe : monetary value of neurotoxicity prevention

© 2013 Bellanger et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Due to global mercury pollution and the adverse health effects of prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), an assessment of the economic benefits of prevented developmental neurotoxicity is necessary for any cost-benefit analysis. Methods: Distributions of hair-Hg concentrations among women of reproductive age were obtained from the DEMOCOPHES project (1,875 subjects in 17 countries) and literature data (6,820 subjects from 8 countries). The exposures were assumed to comply with log-normal distributions. Neurotoxicity effects were estimated from a linear dose-response function with a slope of 0.465 Intelligence Quotient (IQ) point reduction per μg/g increase in the maternal hair-Hg concentration during pregnancy, assuming no deficits below a hair-Hg limit of 0.58 μg/g thought to be safe. A logarithmic IQ response was used in sensitivity analyses. The estimated IQ benefit cost was based on lifetime income, adjusted for purchasing power parity. Results: The hair-mercury concentrations were the highest in Southern Europe and lowest in Eastern Europe. The results suggest that, within the EU, more than 1.8 million children are born every year with MeHg exposures above the limit of 0.58 μg/g, and about 200,000 births exceed a higher limit of 2.5 μg/g proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The total annual benefits of exposure prevention within the EU were estimated at more than 600,000 IQ points per year, corresponding to a total economic benefit between €8,000 million and €9,000 million per year. About four-fold higher values were obtained when using the logarithmic response function, while adjustment for productivity resulted in slightly lower total benefits. These calculations do not include the less tangible advantages of protecting brain development against neurotoxicity or any other adverse effects. Conclusions: These estimates document that efforts to combat mercury pollution and to reduce MeHg exposures will have very substantial economic benefits in Europe, mainly in southern countries. Some data may not be entirely representative, some countries were not covered, and anticipated changes in mercury pollution all suggest a need for extended biomonitoring of human MeHg exposure.Exposure data were contributed from the DEMOCOPHES project (LIFE09 ENV/BE/000410) carried out thanks to joint financing of 50% from the European Commission programme LIFE + along with 50% from each participating country (see the national implementation websites accessible via http://www.eu-hbm.info/democophes/project-partners). Special thanks go to the national implementation teams. The COPHES project that provided the operational and scientific framework was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme - DG Research (Grant Agreement Number 244237). Additional exposure data were supported by the PHIME project (FOOD-CT-2006-016253) and ArcRisk (GA 226534). We are grateful to Yue Gao and colleagues for sharing Flanders exposure data from the Flemish Center of Expertise on Environment and Health, financed and steered by the Ministry of the Flemish Community. National exposure data from the 2006–2007 French national survey on nutrition and health (Etude Nationale Nutrition Santé) were made available by Nadine Fréry, French Institute for Public Health Surveillance. Data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (a validation sample) were kindly provided by Anne Lise Brantsæter, National Institute of Public Health, Oslo. The UK mercury data were obtained from the ALSPAC pregnancy blood analyses carried out at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with funding from NOAA (the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration). The studies in the Faroe Islands were supported by the US National Institutes of Health (ES009797 and ES012199). The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies

Changes in the winter oilseed rape microbiome affected by Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris and biocontrol potential of the indigenous Bacillus and Pseudomonas isolates

Plant pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) was recently described as a pathogen of winter oilseed rape in Serbia. A metabarcoding approach was used to study bacterial community composition changes in the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of different winter oilseed rape types (lines, cultivars, and hybrids) naturally infected with Xcc. This study also aimed to examine the potential of indigenous Bacillus and Pseudomonas isolates to suppress Xcc. Infection with Xcc leads to depletion of bacterial diversity in the plants' phyllosphere and explicitly decreasing the abundance of genera such as Exiguobacterium, Massilia, and Pantoea with potentially beneficial properties. Strains identified as Bacillus velezensis X5-2, Bacillus megaterium X6-3, and Pseudomonas orientalis X2-1P obtained from oilseed rape phyllosphere were found to be effective against Xcc in vitro and in vivo when applied as a whole-culture and as a cell-free supernatant. The greenhouse in vivo tests on winter oilseed rape plants with three selected biocontrol strains lead to a disease reduction of 82.37% and 72.47% in preventive and curative treatments, respectively. Genetic screening showed potential for the biosynthesis of surfactin, kurstakin, bacillomycin D, and iturin in B. velezensis X5-2, as well as surfactin and kurstakin in B. megaterium X6-3. Gene phcA encoding phenazine-1-carboxylic acid was detected in P. orientalis X2-1P. The chemical composition of ethyl acetate and benzene extracts of three biocontrol strains obtained by GC-MS and HPLC-ESI-qTOF/MS analyses indicates numerous volatile organic compounds (alkenes, benzenes, carboxylic acids, indoles, pyrazines, etc.), lipopeptides, and/or antibiotics, for many of which antimicrobial potential is proven. We assume that this wide range of metabolites is responsible for the exhibited biocontrol activity against Xcc. These results recommend all three biocontrol strains for further studies for use as agents for biocontrol of bacterial blight-like disease caused by Xcc of oilseed rape