Search

The worldwide plasticizer markets are facing constant substitution processes. Many classic ortho-phthalate plasticizers like di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) are phased out, due to their proven toxicity to reproduction. Assumedly less critical, less regulated plasticizers such as di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHTP) are increasingly applied in consumer near products like toys, food contact materials, and medical devices. With the increasing use of DEHTP, increasing exposures of the general population have to be expected likewise. Human biomonitoring is a well-established tool to determine population exposures. In the present study we investigate the time trend of exposure to DEHTP using 24-hour urine samples of the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) collected from 1999 to 2017. In these samples (60 per odd-numbered year, 600 samples in total) collected from young German adults (20–29 years, equal gender distribution) we determined four specific urinary metabolites as biomarkers of DEHTP exposure. From 1999 to 2009, the main specific urinary metabolite 5cx-MEPTP was quantifiable in <10% of the samples. Thereafter, detection rates and levels constantly increased, in line with rapidly increasing DEHTP consumption volumes. In 2017, all samples had 5cx-MEPTP levels above the limit of quantification (LOQ) with a median concentration of 3.35 μg/L (95th percentile: 12.8 μg/L). The other metabolites were detected less frequently and at lower levels but correlated well with 5cx-MEPTP robustly confirming the increasing DEHTP exposure. All 5cx-MEPTP concentrations were well below the German health based guidance value (HBM-I) of 2800 μg/L for adults. Likewise, the median calculated daily intake, based on 5cx-MEPTP measured in 2017, was 0.74 μg/kg bw∗d (95th percentile: 3.86 μg/kg bw∗d), still well below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 1000 μg/kg bw∗d. Based on current toxicological knowledge we can hence conclude that for the population investigated, DEHTP exposure gives no reason for immediate concern. However, the steep ongoing increase of DEHTP exposure warrants further close monitoring in the future, preferably also in sub-populations with known higher exposures to plasticizers, especially children. • First DEHTP biomonitoring data for a large scale German study population (n = 600) • Significant increase of DEHTP metabolites in urine samples collected from 1999 to 2017 • DEHTP metabolites detectable in every urine sample of 2017 • US data indicate higher current DEHTP exposures compared to Germany. • Steep, ongoing increase in exposure warrants close monitoring in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead is a ubiquitous pollutant with well-known effects on human health. As there is no lower toxicological threshold for lead in blood and since data gaps on lead exposure still exist in many European countries, HBM data on lead is of high importance. To address this, the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative HBM4EU classified lead as a priority substance. The German Environmental Specimen Bank (German ESB) has monitored lead exposure since more than 35 years. Using data from the early 1980s to 2019 we reveal and discuss long-term trends in blood lead levels (BLLs) and current internal exposure of young adults in Germany. BLLs in young adults decreased substantially in the investigated period. As results from the ESB sampling site Muenster demonstrate, the geometric mean of BLLs of young adults decreased from 1981 (78,7 μg/L) to 2019 (10.4 μg/L) by about 87%. Trends in human exposure closely correlate with air lead levels (ALLs) provided by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP). Hence, the decrease of BLLs largely reflects the drop in air lead pollution. Known associations of sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, and housing situation with BLLs are confirmed with data of the German ESB. Although internal lead exposure in Germany decreased substantially, the situation might be different in other European countries. Since 2010, BLLs of young adults in Germany levelled out at approximately 10 μg/L. The toxicity of lead even at low levels is known to cause adverse health effects especially in children following exposure of the child or the mother during pregnancy. To identify current exposure sources and to minimize future lead exposure, continuous monitoring of lead intake and exposure levels is needed., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Major depression (MD) often has its onset during adolescence and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. One important factor for the development and maintenance of adolescent MD are disturbances in emotion regulation and the underlying neural processes. Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is a particular adaptive emotion regulation strategy. Previously, it has been shown in healthy adults that a task-based training in CR is efficient to reduce negative affect, and that these effects translate into everyday life.This randomised controlled trial examines for the first time whether a task-based training in CR proves effective in MD adolescents. Specifically, we will investigate whether the CR training improves the ability to downregulate negative affect in MD individuals as assessed by behavioural and neurobiological indices, and whether training effects generalise outside the laboratory., Methods and Analysis: Adolescents with MD will be randomly allocated to a group that either receives a task-based training in CR or a control training. Both involve four training sessions over a time period of 2 weeks. In the CR training, participants will be instructed to downregulate negative affective responses to negative pictures via CR, while the control training involves picture viewing. During the training sessions, the Late Positive Potential, gaze fixations on negative picture aspects and affective responses to pictures will be collected. Before and after the training programmes, and at a 2-week follow-up, overall negative and positive affect, rumination and perceived stress will be assessed as primary outcomes. Analyses of variance will be conducted to test the effectiveness of the CR training with regard to both primary outcomes and task-based behavioural and neurobiological parameters., Ethics and Dissemination: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the LMU Munich, Germany. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated through conferences, social media and public events., Trial Registration Details: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03957850, registered 21 st May 2019; URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03957850., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

DINCH (cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid-diisononyl ester) is a phthalate plasticizer substitute introduced into the market in 2002. It is increasingly used especially in the production of toys, food contact materials and medical devices. In this measurement campaign on 24-h urine samples of young adults (20-29 years) from the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) collected in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 (in total 300 samples, 60 samples/year) we analyzed three specific, oxidized DINCH metabolites (OH-MINCH: cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid-mono(hydroxy-isononyl) ester; cx-MINCH: cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid-mono(carboxy-isooctyl) ester, oxo-MINCH: cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid-mono(oxo-isononyl) ester). We merged these data with earlier data of the ESB from the years 1999-2012 and are now able to report levels and time trends of internal DINCH exposure from 1999 to 2017. After first detections of the major oxidized DINCH metabolite OH-MINCH in 2006 (6.7%) detection rates rapidly increased to 43.3% in 2009, 80% in 2010 and 98.3% in 2011 and 2012. From the year 2013 on we could detect OH-MINCH in every urine sample analyzed. The median concentrations of OH-MINCH rapidly increased from 0.15 μg/L in 2010 to twice the concentration in 2011 (0.31 μg/L) with further increases in 2013 (0.37 μg/L), 2015 (0.59 μg/L) and 2017 (0.70 μg/L). Similar increases, albeit at lower detection rates and concentration levels, could be observed for cx-MINCH and oxo-MINCH. All metabolites strongly correlate with each other. For the ESB study population, DINCH exposures are still far below health based guidance values such as the German Human Biomonitoring Value (HBM-I; 4,500 μg/L for the sum of OH-MINCH and cx-MINCH) or the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of EFSA (1 mg/kg bw/d). The median daily DINCH intake (DI) calculated for 2017 was 0.23 μg/kg bw/d, thus 4,310-times lower than the TDI. The maximum DI calculated for one individual in 2012 (42.60 μg/kg bw/d) was a factor of more than 20 below the TDI. The ongoing increase in DINCH exposure needs to be closely monitored in the future, including populations with potentially higher exposures such as children. This close monitoring will enable timely exposure and risk reduction measures if exposures reached critical levels, or if new toxicological data lead to lower health based guidance values. DINCH belongs to the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) priority substances for which policy relevant questions still have to be answered., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to get a first overview of the exposure to the solvents and reproductive toxicants N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone (NEP) in Germany. NMP and NEP metabolite concentrations were determined in 540 24-h urine samples of the German Environmental Specimen Bank collected from 1991 to 2014. With these data we were able to investigate NMP/NEP exposures over time and to evaluate associated risks., Methods: NMP metabolites 5-hydroxy-N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (5-HNMP) and 2-hydroxy-N-methylsuccinimide (2-HMSI) and NEP metabolites 5-hydroxy-N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone (5-HNEP) and 2-hydroxy-N-ethylsuccinimide (2-HESI) were determined by stable isotope dilution analysis using solid phase extraction followed by derivatization (silylation) and GC-EI-MS/MS., Results: We were able to quantify 5-HNMP and 2-HMSI in 98.0 and 99.6% and 5-HNEP and 2-HESI in 34.8 and 75.7% of the samples. Metabolite concentrations were rather steady over the timeframe investigated, even for NEP which has been introduced as an NMP substitute only in the last decade. Calculated median daily intakes in 2014 were 2.7 µg/kg bw/day for NMP and 1.1 µg/kg bw/day for NEP. For the combined risk assessment of NMP and NEP exposure, the hazard index based on the human biomonitoring assessment I values (HBM I values) was less than 0.1., Conclusions: Based on the investigated subpopulation of the German population, individual and combined NMP and NEP exposures were within acceptable ranges in the investigated timeframe. Sources of NEP exposure in the 90s and 00s remain elusive.

Current biological psychiatry, it is frequently claimed by its opponents, is "biologistic" and unduly narrows psychological disorders to neurobiology and molecular biology. They deem a complete neuroscientific reduction of the mental phenomena to be impossible because of the impossibility of reducing certain phenomena, such as the individual subjective experience. If such a reduction is nevertheless undertaken it is ultimately to the disadvantage of the patients. We argue in this article that the very term "biologism" has to be put under scrutiny in the first place. As a result it becomes obvious that "biologism", as a subclass of "philosophical naturalism", is ultimately quite unproblematic. Biologism is dangerous only if it implies an eliminative rejection or an inappropriate underestimation of the relevance of the psyche. On closer examination it gets evident that such implications do not follow necessarily from biologism but cannot be precluded either. To better identify and possibly prevent such dangers, a more differentiated terminology seems helpful.

The German system of a health-related environmental monitoring is based upon two instruments: The German Environmental Survey (GerES) and the Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB). The ESB is a tool to describe time trends of human exposure. Each year approx. 500 students from 4 sampling locations are analysed for their heavy metal contents in blood, blood plasma, and urine. GerES is a nationwide representative cross-sectional study that has been conducted four times up to now. Both instruments have been used to measure heavy metals over the last decades and thus provide complementary information. Both instruments are useful to describe time trends. However, combining the two has an added value, which is demonstrated for heavy metals for the first time in this paper. Major results and the changing importance of sources of exposure to heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, Au, Pt, U and Ni) are shown. This leads to the following conclusion about the today's relevance of exposure in Germany. For the study participants of the city of Muenster, lead in whole blood decreased from about 70 μg/l in 1981 to levels below 15 μg/l in 2009. GerES data of young adults confirmed this time trend and GerES IV on children revealed the decreasing relevance of lead in outdoor air and in drinking water. The concentrations of mercury in urine decreased because in Germany it is no longer recommended to use amalgam fillings for children. However, GerES IV and ESB data also demonstrate that despite the decline of these heavy metals exposures to nickel and uranium originating from drinking water are still of importance., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)