Adrian Covaci

University of Antwerp | UA · Toxicological Center

Human milk samples (n = 206) collected in 2014 from Belgian primiparous mothers were analyzed for seven groups of persistent organic pollutants (POPs): dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), chlordane compounds (CHLs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), pentach...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intracameral administration of Mydrane® in children undergoing lens surgery. Methods: We set up a single center prospective cohort trial including 40 consecutive patients between 8 weeks and 17 years old who were planned for lens surgery, including cataract, persistent fetal vascul...

Nontargeted screening (NTS) utilizing liquid chromatography electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/HRMS) is increasingly used to identify environmental contaminants. Major differences in the ionization efficiency of compounds in ESI/HRMS result in widely varying responses and complicate quantitative analysis. Despite an i...

Rationale Ion‐mobility (IM)–derived collision cross‐section (CCS) values can serve as a valuable additional identification parameter within suspect and non‐target screening studies of environmental contaminants. However, these applications require to assess the reproducibility of CCS calculations between different IM set‐ups. Especially for the com...

Torin1, a selective kinase inhibitor targeting the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), remains widely used in autophagy research due to its potent autophagy-inducing abilities, regardless of its unspecific properties. Recognizing the impact of mTOR inhibition on metabolism, our objective was to develop a reliable and thorough untargeted metabolom...

Tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP) is one of the major organophosphate flame retardants present in the indoor and outdoor environment. Knowledge of biotransformation pathways is important to elucidate potential bioavailability and toxicity of TCIPP and to identify relevant biomarkers. This study aimed to identify TCIPP metabolites through i...

Obtaining clean energy is of prime importance for planetary health and sustainable development. We aimed to assess the association between residential energy transition and the risk of chronic respiratory diseases. Using data from the Global Health Observatory and Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study, we delineated the spatia...

Food waste is currently used for the production of biogas. However, a reusage of waste is preferred to follow the principles of the circular economy and consider the waste management hierarchy, which can be achieved by rearing black soldier fly (BSF) larvae on such organic waste. Nonetheless, the presence of (micro)plastics and related additive pla...

Workers involved in the processing of electronic waste (e-waste) are potentially exposed to toxic chemicals, including phthalates and alternative plasticizers (APs). Dismantling and shredding of e-waste may lead to the production of dust that contains these plasticizers. The aim of this study, which was part of the European Human Biomonitoring Init...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a diverse group of chemicals characterized by toxic properties, resistance to degradation, bioaccumulation, and widespread transport through air and water. Despite global regulatory efforts, POPs are persistent in the environment, resulting in widespread contamination long after restrictions are in place. Th...

Objectives Dental composites remain under scrutiny regarding their (long-term) safety. In spite of numerous studies on the release of monomers both in vitro and in vivo, only limited quantitative data exist on the in vivo leaching of degradation products from monomers and additives. The aim of this observational study was for the first time to quan...

FLEXiGUT - the Flemish exposome project- is the first large-scale study focused on investigating the importance of the exposome in the development and progression of chronic low-grade gut inflammation both in children and adults. To this end, we combine exposure records and high-throughput omics technologies with epidemiological studies. We investi...

Childhood exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), either alone or in mixtures, may affect metabolic outcomes, yet existing evidence remains inconclusive. In our study of 372 adolescents from the Flemish Environment and Health Study (FLEHS IV, 2017–2018), we measured 40 known and suspected EDCs and assessed metabolic outcomes, including b...

The knowledge of the effects of organophosphate flame retardants on children’s neurodevelopment is limited. The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the association between exposure to organophosphate flame retardants and children’s neurodevelopment in two European cohorts involved in the Human Biomonitoring Initiative Aligned Studies. Th...

The knowledge of the effects of organophosphate flame retardants on children’s neurodevelopment is limited. The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the association between exposure to organophosphate flame retardants and children’s neurodevelopment in two European cohorts involved in the Human Biomonitoring Initiative Aligned Studies. Th...

Human biomonitoring (HBM) data in Europe are often fragmented and collected in different EU countries and sampling periods. Exposure levels for children and adult women in Europe were evaluated over time. For the period 2000–2010, literature and aggregated data were collected in a harmonized way across studies. Between 2011–2012, biobanked samples...

Due to their industrial origin and constituents, electric and electronic equipment may contain organic contaminants, such as polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and polybromodiphenylethers (PBDEs). Workers involved in the e-waste recycling are thus potentially exposed to these toxic chemicals via dust inhalation/ingestion and/or dermal contact. The present...

Epilipids, a subset of the lipidome that comprises oxidized, nitrated, and halogenated lipid species, show important biochemical activity in the regulation of redox lipid metabolism by influencing cell fate decisions, including death, health, and aging. Due to the large chemical diversity, reversed-phase liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass s...

Many food contact materials (FCMs) and reusable plastics in the food industry contain poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of synthetic pollutants that are known to be potentially harmful for wildlife, humans, and the environment. PFAS may migrate from FCMs to food consumed by humans. As a replacement for plastics, often paper and ot...

This study utilizes wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to evaluate spatiotemporal changes in the consumption of antidepressants before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia. Composite 24-h influent wastewater samples (n = 210) were collected from six wastewater treatment plants between summer 2019 and spring 2021. The samples were extracted...

Monitoring long-term alcohol use and/or abstinence is essential in clinical and medico-legal cases. Analysis of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair provides information on alcohol consumption over several months. However, there is a lag time between ethanol consumption, incorporation of EtG in the hair bulb and hair growing out of the scalp. Phosphatid...

Due to adverse health effects, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a plasticizer used to soften plastic medical devices (PMDs), was restricted, and gradually replaced by alternative plasticizers (APs). Up to this date, urine was the sole matrix studied for plasticizer exposure in neonates hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a p...

Lipidomics investigates the composition and function of lipids, typically employing blood or tissue samples as the primary study matrices. Hair has recently emerged as a potential complementary sample type to identify biomarkers in early disease stages and retrospectively document an individual’s metabolic status due to its long detection window o...

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) can rapidly biotransform into two types of metabolites in biota: (1) organophosphate diesters (DAPs) and (2) hydroxylated OPFRs (HO-OPFRs). Therefore, the levels of parent OPFRs alone are not sufficient to indicate OPFR pollution in biological organisms. This study analyzed 12 OPFR metabolites, including 6 D...

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are a major environmental concern due to their ubiquitous presence in the environment. Since human exposure to CPs can significantly differ among individuals, it is essential to have an effective tool for monitoring personal exposure to CPs. In this pilot study, silicone wristbands (SWBs) were employed as a personal pass...

In this study, very short-, short-, medium-, and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (vSCCPs, SCCPs, MCCPs and LCCPs, respectively) were measured in 40 indoor dust samples from four countries including Japan (n = 10), Australia (n = 10), Colombia (n = 10) and Thailand (n = 10). Homologues of the chemical formula CxH(2x+2-y)Cly ranging C6-36 and Cl3-30...

The issue of microplastic (MP) litter in the aquatic environment and its capability of accumulating and/or releasing pollutants has been brought to light in recent years. Biodegradable plastics have been proposed as one of the different solutions to decrease environmental input of discarded plastics; however, their ability to accumulate and release...

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are a class of surfactants commonly used in disinfecting and cleaning products. Their use has substantially increased during the COVID-19 pandemic leading to increasing human exposure. QACs have been associated with hypersensitivity reactions and an increased risk of asthma. This study introduces the first ident...

Persistent and mobile chemicals (PMs) are highly polar organic chemicals of anthropogenic origin, which have been documented as an emerging issue of concern for environmental and human health and for which policy needs have recently been identified. Since PMs are recognized as a serious threat to water resources and drinking water, many studies hav...

Phthalates are mainly used as plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Exposure to several phthalates is associated with different adverse effects most prominently on the development of reproductive functions. The HBM4EU Aligned Studies (2014-2021) have investigated current European exposure to ten phthalates (DEP, BBzP, DiBP, DnBP, DCHP, DnPeP,...

The proliferation of new psychoactive substances (NPS) over recent years has made their surveillance complex. The analysis of raw municipal influent wastewater can allow a broader insight into community consumption patterns of NPS. This study examines data from an international wastewater surveillance program that collected and analysed influent wa...

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as organochlorines (OCs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), is associated with adverse health effects in wildlife. Many POPs have been banned and consequently their environmental concentrations have declined. To assess both temporal trends of POPs and their detrimental impacts, raptors...

Black soldier fly (BSF) larvae (Hermetia illucens) are voracious feeders that can be reared on food waste streams originating from the food industry and retailers. Because these food waste streams are automatically being unpacked in substantial amounts, they can contain microplastics, potentially jeopardising the larvae’s chemical safety when appli...

Compound identification by database searching that matches experimental with library mass spectra is commonly used in mass spectrometric (MS) data analysis. Vendor software often outputs scores that represent the quality of each spectral match for the identified compounds. However, software-generated identification results can differ drastically de...

Despite the high prevalence of alcoholic liver disease, its identification and characterization remain poor, especially in early stages such as alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic steatohepatitis. This latter implies diagnostic difficulties, few therapeutic options and unclear mechanisms of action. To elucidate the metabolic alterations and...

As one of the core elements of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) a human biomonitoring (HBM) survey was conducted in 23 countries to generate EU-wide comparable HBM data. This survey has built on existing HBM capacity in Europe by aligning national or regional HBM studies, referred to as the HBM4EU Aligned Studies. The HBM4EU Ali...

Wide exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) poses a great risk on human health. However, few large-scale cohort studies have comprehensively estimated the association between EDCs exposure and mortality risk. This study aimed to investigate the association of urinary EDCs exposure with mortality risk and quantify attributable mortality a...

WBE has now become a complimentary tool in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. This was preceded by the established application of WBE to assess the consumption of illicit drugs in communities. It is now timely to build on this and take the opportunity to expand WBE to enable comprehensive assessment of community exposure to chemical stressors and their mixtu...

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are a major environmental concern due to their ubiquitous presence in the environment. Since human exposure to CPs can significantly differ among individuals, it is essential to have an effective tool for monitoring personal exposure to CPs. In this pilot study, silicone wristbands (SWBs) were employed as a personal pass...

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) includes the analysis of human metabolic biomarkers of xenobiotics in influent wastewater. WBE complements existing drug utilization approaches and provides objective, spatio-temporal information on the consumption of pharmaceuticals in the general population. This approach was applied to 24-h composite influent...

Concerns about the presence of microplastics in the environment has increased in recent years, prompting more attention from scientists. Thorough exposure studies using artificially produced microplastics containing additives are required to assess their potentially hazardous effects. Therefore, an efficient microplastic production and fractionatio...

Human biomonitoring (HBM) data measured in specific contexts or populations provide information for comparing population exposures. There are numerous health-based biomonitoring guidance values, but to locate these values, interested parties need to seek them out individually from publications, governmental reports, websites and other sources. Unti...

Within the European Human Biomonitoring (HBM) Initiative HBM4EU we derived HBM indicators that were designed to help answering key policy questions and support chemical policies. The result indicators convey information on chemicals exposure of different age groups, sexes, geographical regions and time points by comparing median exposure values. If...

Many legacy and emerging flame retardants (FRs) have adverse human and environmental health effects. This study reports legacy and emerging FRs in children from nine European countries from the HBM4EU aligned studies. Studies from Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Norway conducted between 2014 and 20...