Objective: Today chemicals play a major role in our daily lives, being present in the air we breathe, in the food we eat and in the products we use. As such, it is essential to know the levels of chemicals present in our bodies and assess the risks associated. For that, Human Biomonitoring (HBM), the measurement of the concentrations of chemicals in human biological samples, is a very useful technique. Nevertheless, Portuguese HBM data is scarce and more knowledge on the exposure to chemicals of the Portuguese population is needed. It is then proposed to develop a study to assess the current environmental exposure of Portuguese children and women of childbearing age, vulnerable groups of the population, to selected chemicals, particularly metals and endocrine disruptors.
Methods: The project ARTEMIS will evaluate exposure of children aged 6-11 years old and their mothers aged 45 years or less residing in four selected rural and urban areas in Portugal (LVT and Alentejo regions). Recruitment will be done through schools. Urine and hair samples will be collected for the analysis of exposure biomarkers, namely of metals (including mercury, cadmium and arsenic), bisphenols and cotinine. Additionally, saliva samples will be collected for the analysis of effect biomarkers (salivary proteome). Questionnaire data on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle, nutrition, health, and specific information on exposure to the selected chemicals will be collected using CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing). A biobank will also be established to allow further analysis of the samples.
Expected results: ARTEMIS will be an innovative project that will not only produce much needed data on the current exposure of the Portuguese population to chemicals, but also allow to evaluate time trends of exposure to some chemicals by comparison with the results from previous projects and to study the association of exposure with biomarkers of effect.ARTEMIS financiado pelo CHRC Research Grants 2022N/
