Janja Snoj Tratnik

Jožef Stefan Institute | IJS · Department of Environmental Sciences

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is poorly understood, with causes identified in only 25% of cases. Emerging evidence suggests links between trace elements (TEs) and POI. This study is the first to compare concentrations of manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lea...

Background Trace elements, including zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu), although toxic at higher concentrations are known to play important roles in the maintenance of human health and neurodevelopment. Few epidemiological studies have investigated the association between prenatal or early postnatal Cu and Zn levels and child neurodevelopment. The aim of t...

Background: There is almost no data on the combined associations between apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) genotypes, trace elements (TEs), and lipid peroxidation in vivo. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association between APOE genotypes and TE levels in blood (B-TEs) and erythrocytes (E-TEs), and 8-isoprostane in urine (U- 8-isoprostane) in w...

Based on toxicological evidence, children’s exposure to phthalates may contribute to altered neurodevelopment and abnormal regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We analyzed data from five aligned studies of the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) project. Ten phthalate metabolites and protein BDNF levels were measured in the u...

Due to the increasing importance of exposome in environmental epidemiology, feasibility and usefulness of an Environmental Data Management System (EDMS) using Open Data was evaluated. The EDMS includes data from 10 European cities (Celje (Slovenia), Łódź (Poland), Manchester (UK), Palermo (Italy), Paris (France), Porto (Portugal), Regensburg (Germa...

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...

Objectives: The authors aimed to evaluate whether blood cadmium (B-Cd), lead (B-Pb) and mercury (B-Hg) in children differ regionally in 9 countries, and to identify factors correlating with exposure. Material and methods: The authors performed a cross-sectional study of children aged 7-14 years, living in 2007-2008 in urban, rural, or potentiall...

Background: Seafood is a major source of vital nutrients for optimal fetal growth, but at the same time is the main source of exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), an established neurodevelopmental toxicant. Pregnant women must be provided with dietary advice so as to include safely fish in their diet for nutrition and mercury control. The aim of this...

Introduzione L’esposoma, definito come la totalità delle esposizioni individuali nel corso della vita, sta assumendo sempre più importanza negli studi epidemiologici. Obiettivo Implementazione di un Sistema di Gestione dei Dati Ambientali (EDMS), per la valutazione dell’esposoma esterno utilizzando dati “open source” per 10 città europee (2017-2020...

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,...

Phthalates are mainly used as plasticizers and are associated inter alia with adverse effects on reproductive functions. While more and more national programs in Europe have started monitoring internal exposure to phthalates and its substitute 1,2-Cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid (DINCH), the comparability of results from such existing human biomonitor...

One of the aims of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative, HBM4EU, was to provide examples of and good practices for the effective use of human biomonitoring (HBM) data in human health risk assessment (RA). The need for such information is pressing, as previous research has indicated that regulatory risk assessors generally lack knowledge 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...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of high concern for the environment, wildlife, and human health due to their persistence and potential to cause adverse health effects. Despite political measures to restrict the production and distribution of PFAS and to limit the exposure of populations, PFAS can be measured at commonly high detectio...

The exposome paradigm through an integrated approach to investigating the impact of perinatal exposure to metals on child neurodevelopment in two cohorts carried out in Slovenia (PHIME cohort) and Greece (HERACLES cohort) respectively, is presented herein. Heavy metals are well-known neurotoxicants with well-established links to impaired neurodevel...

The impacts of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ALAD and VDR genes on Pb health effects and/or kinetics are inconclusive at low exposure levels, while studies including APOE SNPs are rare. In this study, we examined the associations of ALAD, VDR and APOE SNPs with exposure biomarkers of Pb and other trace elements (TEs) in Italian pregnant...

Background Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made fluorinated chemicals, widely used in various types of consumer products, resulting in their omnipresence in human populations. The aim of this study was to describe current PFAS levels in European teenagers and to investigate the determinants of serum/plasma concentrations in this specific a...

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...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a highly persistent, mobile, and bioaccumulative class of chemicals, of which emissions into the environment result in long-lasting contamination with high probability for causing adverse effects to human health and the environment. Within the European Biomonitoring Initiative HBM4EU, samples and data...

Trace elements, including zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu), are known to play important roles in human health. The present study aimed to assess the levels of Zn and Cu in cord blood and maternal milk and to analyze their association with maternal and infant characteristics and pregnancy outcomes in a Slovenian study population of mothers and their neonat...

Human exposure to organic contaminants is widespread. Many of these contaminants show adverse health effects on human population. Human biomonitoring (HBM) follows the levels and the distribution of biomarkers of exposure (BoE), but it is usually done in a targeted manner. Suspect and non-targeted screening (SS/NTS) tend to find BoE in an agnostic...

The objectives of the study were to estimate the current exposure to cadmium (Cd) in Europe, potential differences between the countries and geographic regions, determinants of exposure and to derive European exposure levels. The basis for this work was provided by the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) which established a framework f...

Few data are available on the exposure of children to glyphosate (Gly) in Europe. Within HBM4EU, new HBM exposure data were collected from aligned studies at five sampling sites distributed over Europe (studies: SLO CRP (SI); ORGANIKO (CY); GerES V-sub (DE); 3XG (BE); ESTEBAN (FR)). Median Gly concentrations in urine were below or around the detect...

Pyrethroids are a major insecticide class, suitable for biomonitoring in humans. Due to similarities in structure and metabolic pathways, urinary metabolites are common to various active substances. A tiered approach is proposed for risk assessment. Tier I was a conservative screening for overall pyrethroid exposure, based on phenoxybenzoic acid me...

Human biomonitoring has become a pivotal tool for supporting chemicals’ policies. It provides information on real-life human exposures and is increasingly used to prioritize chemicals of health concern and to evaluate the success of chemical policies. Europe has launched the ambitious REACH program in 2007 to improve the protection of human health...

Due to their extensive usage, organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) have been detected in humans and in the environment. Human are exposed to OPFRs via inhalation of indoor air, dust uptake or dietary uptake through contaminated food and drinking water. Only recently, few studies addressing dietary exposure to OPFRs were published. In this stud...

In the first national human biomonitoring study in the Slovenian population of adults (18–49 years), including men (n = 297) and lactating primiparous women (n = 304), exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was evaluated. Nine urinary metabolites of four parent PAHs were determined. These included 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPYR), 2-hydroxyna...

In the Arctic, main sources of persistent organic pollutants and potentially toxic elements are industry and agriculture in the lower latitudes. However, there are also local sources of pollution. Our study was focused on possible pollution in the Finnish Lapland, transferred from the Pechenganikel industrial complex located in the borders of Russi...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of cytochrome P450 (CYPs) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGTs) genes have been proposed to influence phthalates and 1,2-cyclo-hexanedicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester (DINCH) biotransformation but have not been investigated on a populational level. We investigated the role of SNPs in CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6,...

This work presents an application of machine learning methods in the area of environmental epidemiology. We have used lifestyle and exposure data from 769 mother-child pairs from Slovenia and Croatia to predict the neurodevelopment of the children, expressed through five Bayley-III test scores. We have applied single- and multi-target (semi-)superv...

Mercury (Hg) is one of the HBM4EU priority substances. The main source of human exposure to Hg is through the consumption of seafood contaminated with methylmercury. Considering the toxicity of Hg on the developing central nervous system, it is important to characterize MeHg exposure levels in pregnant women in European countries where seafood cons...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Mercury and its compounds are toxic and are among the substances of higher concern globally. Toxicity depends on mercury compounds, route of exposure and duration. The European population is mostly exposed to organic mercury (methylmercury) due to fish consumption; while exposure to inorganic and elemental mercury is largely ass...

Phthalates and 1,2-Cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester (DINCH), bisphenols (BPs), parabens (PBs), and triclosan (TCS) are high-production-volume chemicals of pseudo-persistence that are concerning for the environment and human health. This study aims to assess the exposure to 10 phthalates, DINCH, and environmental phenols (3 BPs, 7 PBs,...

Few studies provide a detailed description of dietary habits during pregnancy, despite the central role of nutrition for the health of the mother and offspring. This paper describes the dietary habits, energy and nutrient intake in pregnant women from four countries belonging to the Mediterranean PHIME cohort (Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia) a...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) represent a concern for the environment and human health due to their persistence and toxicity. Exposure in Slovenia is geographically differentiated because the country, as part of former Yugoslavia, has a history of industry and regional contamination and is – at the same time – known for its clean nature. The...

Chemicals such as bisphenols, parabens and triclosan are endocrine disrupting chemicals. They are used in a wide variety of consumer products, making human exposure to those chemicals widespread.In the present study, levels of three bisphenols (bisphenol A, F and S), 7 parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, isopropyl-, propyl-, isobutyl-, butyl-, benzyl parabe...

Exposure to noise is recognized as one of the crucial environmental stressors, especially in urban settings, and people increasingly perceive the quality of sound environment as a paramount aspect of their general quality of life. However, they are rarely involved in respective research. Here we present some preliminary results of an ongoing citize...

We investigated the relationship between lipid binding glycoprotein apolipoprotein E (apoE; gene APOE) polymorphisms (ε4 allele carriers versus no carriers = ε4+/ε4−) and trace elements (TEs) (e.g., (methyl)mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium, manganese, copper, and zinc) in mothers (N = 223) and their new-borns (N = 213) exposed to potential...

There are extensive data on the toxicity of glyphosate (GLY) based herbicides (GBH), however the interpretation of some data (e.g. carcinogenic effect) are subject to controversy. For the appropriate health risk assessment more data on exposure levels in the general population, especially in susceptible groups such as pregnant women, the elderly an...

The quantity and composition of fatty acids (FAs) in milk can influence an infant's growth and development through maternal diet. Therefore, associations between maternal diet and FA composition in 74 mature human milk samples were investigated. This study aimed to obtain FA patterns in mature milk arising from different dietary habits in two geogr...

Human biomonitoring (HBM) depends on high-quality human samples to identify status and trends in exposure and ensure comparability of results. In this context, much effort has been put into the development of standardized processes and quality assurance for sampling and chemical analysis, while effects of sample storage and shipment on sample quali...

Phthalates are widespread contaminants with differing chemical characteristics, which largely determine their product applications, and they can leach into the environment. Due to their endocrine disruptive properties at long-term low-level exposure, they propose a health threat to people that has been associated with several adverse health effects...

The present study reports one of the few cases in which organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid (PYR) pesticide human exposure is evaluated in family contexts by the analysis of mother/child pair samples. Urinary concentrations of 6 organic metabolites of organophosphates and 2 pyrethroids were measured in mothers and their 7-to 8-year-old children (n...

Introduction: Recent research focused on the interaction between land cover and the development of allergic and respiratory disease has provided conflicting results and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In particular, green space, which confers an overall positive impact on general health, may be significantly contributing to adv...

The maternal diet and living environment can affect levels of chemical elements and fatty acid (FA) composition and their stable isotopes (δ13CFA) in human milk. Information obtained from questionnaires is frequently imprecise, thus limiting proper associations between external and internal exposures as well as health effects. In this study, we foc...

Characterization of the exposome, the totality of all environmental factors that one is exposed to from conception onwards, has been recommended to better evaluate the role of environmental influences on developmental programming and life-course vulnerability to major chronic diseases. In the framework of the Health and Environment-wide Association...

Meconium is formed early in gestation and it is normally not excreted until after birth. Thus it may provide a longer and cumulative record of exposure to mercury (Hg). The present study aims to speciate Hg in meconium samples (N = 488) from Slovenian and Croatian new-borns prenatally exposed to low levels of methyl-Hg (MeHg) from maternal seafood...

In recent years, several studies have addressed the issue of prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg); however, few have actually analysed MeHg blood concentrations. Our study population included mothers and their new-borns from Slovenia (central region; N = 584) and Croatia (coastal region; N = 234). We have measurements of total Hg (THg) and MeH...

Objectives: Prenatal exposure of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) are essential for normal fetal growth and neurodevelopment. Availability of LCPUFA depends mostly on maternal fish consumption. Fish consumption also exposes the fetus to mercury which is well known neurotoxicant. We analyzed the associations of combined LCPUFA and me...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of maternal blood selenium (Se) levels and cord blood Se levels with neonatal cerebellum measures and child neurodevelopment at the age of 18 months. Moreover, to investigate whether the neonatal cerebellum measures could be used as a potential biomarker for selenium homeostasis duri...

Human biomonitoring (HBM) programs consist of several interrelated and equally important steps. Of these steps, the study design must answer a specific question: How many individuals must be recruited in order to define the spatial or temporal trends of exposure to environmental pollutants in a given HBM study? Two components must be considered at...

The first national human biomonitoring in Slovenia surveyed cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), manganese (Mn), selenium (Se), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in a childbearing population (18–49 years) selected from lactating primiparous women and men (N = 1084). The overall aim was to estimate trace elements' levels and geographical var...