Martin van den Berg

Utrecht University | UU · Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS)

The concentrations of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCN) were determined in 40 pooled human milk samples from 39 countries covering all five of the United Nations regional groups. The samples were collected in the 2016–2019 exposure studies on persistent organic pollutants coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The median c...

Building on the two rounds of exposure studies with human milk coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the mid-1980s and 1990s on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polychlorinated dibenzo- p -dioxins (PCDD), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF), five expanded studies on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were performed between 20...

The concentrations of a number of polybrominated substances were determined in pooled human milk samples collected from up to 80 countries from all the United Nations Regional Groups. The samples were taken from one or more of the five exposure studies on persistent organic pollutants coordinated by the World Health Organization and the United Nati...

Dioxin-like compounds (DLC) are still present in human milk and this chapter describes a risk–benefit analysis based on decades of WHO global human milk surveys. At present there is no health-based guidance value (HBGV) available for the breastfed infant. Although formally these HBGVs have been set to protect human health for a lifetime exposure pe...

Unopposed estrogenic action in the uterus can lead to the development of endometrial cancer in both humans and rats. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) activation gives rise to anti-estrogenic actions and may consequently reduce the development of endometrial cancer. In this study, the anti-estrogenic potential of the AHR ligands 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodi...

Currently available test methods are not well-suited for the identification of chemicals that disturb hormonal processes involved in female reproductive development and function. This renders women’s reproductive health at increasing risk globally, which, coupled with increasing incidence rates of reproductive disorders, is of great concern. A woma...

It is argued by the author that the addition of flavorings to e-cigarette devices presents a major uncertainty in the health risks of these nicotine delivery-systems. These flavorings have usually been tested only for oral uptake situations and not for e-cigarette devices in which unkown and possible hazardous combustion products can be formed. A s...

There is an ongoing search for new compounds to lower the mortality and recurrence of breast cancer, especially triple-negative breast cancer. Naturally occurring depsidones, extracted from the fungus Aspergillus, are known for their wide range of biological activities such as cytotoxicity, aromatase inhibition, radical scavenging, and antioxidant...

This review provides mechanistic explanations on why smoking reduces endometrial cancer risk with the primary focus on polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs from cigarette smoke can activate aryl hydrocarbon receptor–mediated pathways. This leads to (i) increased levels of anticarcinogenic metabolites of estradiol, (ii) suppression of estrogen rec...

Introduction: The term aerotoxic syndrome (ATS) was proposed 20 years ago to describe a constellation of symptoms reported by pilots and cabin crew following exposure to hydraulic fluids, engine oil, and pyrolysis products during flight. Hydraulic fluids and engine oil contain a large number of potentially toxic chemicals, including various organop...

Human and rat reproductive systems differ significantly with respect to hormonal cyclicity and endometrial cell behavior. However, species-differences in endometrial cell responses upon hormonal stimulation and exposure to potentially toxic compounds are poorly characterized. In this study, human and rat endometrial hormonal responses were assessed...

Rubber granules from old car tyres used in synthetic turf pitches contain a significant number of carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In 2017 the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) concluded that the risks for children are negligible. However, their reports cont...

Some environmental contaminants and pharmaceuticals increase the incidence of uterine tumors in toxicological studies with rats. These tumors can result from a hormonal imbalance due to rat-specific disrupted pituitary prolactin regulation, and are therefore of questionable relevance for humans. In this study we compared in vitro prolactin regulati...

Introduction: “Aerotoxic syndrome” is a debated entity. Regulatory authorities consider long-term health effects to be an unlikely consequence of exposure to contaminated air because several air quality monitoring studies report low concentrations of toxic chemicals in cabin air. We describe two pilots and one flight attendant, who developed ill he...

Resveratrol is a plant-derived polyphenol that is known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorigenic properties in in vitro and in vivo models. Recent studies show that some resveratrol analogues might be more potent anti-tumor agents, which may partly be attributed to their ability to activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). Here, the anti-...

Toxicity of dioxin-like compounds (DLCs), such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and biphenyls, is largely mediated via aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activation. AhR-mediated gene expression can be tissue-specific; however, the inducibility of AhR in the lungs, a major target of DLCs, remains poorly characterized. In this study,...

Smith et al. (Env. Health Perspect. 124: 713, 2016) identified 10 key characteristics (KCs), one or more of which are commonly exhibited by established human carcinogens. The KCs reflect the properties of a cancer-causing agent, such as 'is genotoxic,' 'is immunosuppressive' or 'modulates receptor-mediated effects,' and are distinct from the hallma...

To determine possible effects of lifestyle, diet, housing and professional activities on differences in individual levels of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) in serum of women, 20 to 40 years of age, in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway and Spain. BDE-209 was measured in serum of 145 female volunteers with no known occupational exposure...

Laboratory safety requires protecting personnel from chemical exposures. Working with stock solutions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDFs) in routine analysis of feed and food with bioanalytical or physicochemical methods raises some concerns. Since PCDD/PCDFs are considered as possibly acutely toxic, the potential ri...

Naturally occurring depsidones from the marine fungus Aspergillus unguis are known to have substantial anti-cancer activity, but their mechanism of action remains elusive. The purpose of this study was to examine the anti-aromatase activity of two common depsidones, unguinol and aspergillusidone A, in a co-culture system of human primary breast adi...

Human risk assessment of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds relies heavily on toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) that are mainly based on in vivo rodent studies. However, especially for the PCBs there are many uncertainties with respect to the actual dioxin-like activities and subsequent health effects in humans. For example, the relative effect poten...

Since 1987, the World Health Organization (WHO) carried out global surveys on polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in human milk. This study presents a review of the three most recent surveys from 2000 to 2010, including DDT. The objective was to identify global quanti...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2014.05.006.].

Background Seafood toxins pose an important risk to human health, and maximum levels were imposed by regulatory authorities throughout the world. Several toxin groups are known, each one with many analogues of the major toxin. Regulatory limits are set to ensure that commercially available seafood is not contaminated with unsafe levels. Scope and a...

At present, human risk assessment of the structurally similar non-dioxin-like (NDL) PCBs and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) is done independently for both groups of compounds. There are however obvious similarities between NDL-PCBs and PBDEs with regard to modulation of the intracellular calcium homeostasis (basal calcium levels, voltage-gat...

Endocrine disruption is a specific form of toxicity, where natural and/or anthropogenic chemicals, known as “endocrine disruptors” (EDs), trigger adverse health effects by disrupting the endogenous hormone system. There is need to harmonize guidance on the regulation of EDs, but this has been hampered by what appeared as a lack of consensus among s...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are chemically stable aromatic chlorinated hydrocarbons. They were first produced commercially around 1930 and for the next 5 decades found a wide range of industrial applications as a result of their physicochemical properties of low electrical conductance, fire resistance, resistance to thermal breakdown and chemi...

The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and related factors of androgen receptor (AR) expression in Thai breast cancer patients. A descriptive study was done in 95 patients, who were admitted to Charoenkrung Pracharak Hospital, Bangkok (2011–2013). Statistical relationships were examined between AR protein expression, tumor status, and...

Background: In the risk assessment of PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like (DL) PCBs, regulatory authorities support the use of the toxic equivalency factor (TEF)-scheme derived from a heterogeneous data set of the relative effect potency (REPs) estimates. Objectives: We sought to determine REPs for dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) using expression of cyto...

Toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) are generally applied for estimating human risk of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds using systemic (e.g., blood) levels, even though these TEFs are established based on intake doses in rodent studies. This review shows that systemic relative effect potencies (REPs) can deviate substantially from intake REPs, but ar...

This report aims to provide an improved understanding on the potential socio-economic cost of endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDC)-associated health effects. Gaps between the required and available information of adequate quality that is relevant for health impact analysis and modelling of socio-economic cost in relation to EDCs, are addressed. The...

Exposures to environmental pollutants during windows of developmental vulnerability in early life can cause disease and death in infancy and childhood as well as chronic, non-communicable diseases that may manifest at any point across the life span. Patterns of pollution and pollution-related disease change as countries move through economic develo...

The 2010 Global Burden of Disease estimates indicate a trend toward increasing years lived with disability from chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Risk factors examined included smoking, diet, alcohol, drug abuse, and physical inactivity. By contrast, little consideration was given to accumulating evidence that exposures to environmental chem...

Exposure to tricresyl phosphates (TCPs), via for example contaminated cabin air, has been associated with health effects including the so-called aerotoxic syndrome. While TCP neurotoxicity is mainly attributed to ortho-isomers like tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate (ToCP), recent exposure and risk assessments indicate that ToCP levels in cabin air are ver...

Background: Electronic waste (e-waste) is produced in staggering quantities, estimated globally to be 41.8 million tonnes in 2014. Informal e-waste recycling is a source of much-needed income in many low- to middle-income countries. However, its handling and disposal in underdeveloped countries is often unsafe and leads to contaminated environment...

2 Samenvatting Gebromeerde difenylethers (PBDEs) en organofosfaat pesticiden (OPs) zijn twee voorbeelden van hormoonverstorende chemicaliën ('Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals'-EDCs), die worden geassocieerd met negatieve effecten op de hersenontwikkeling bij kinderen. In deze studie is de socio-economische impact voor de Nederlandse samenleving berek...

Consensus toxicity factors (CTFs) were developed as a novel approach to establish toxicity factors for risk assessment of dioxin-like compounds (DLCs). 18 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and biphenyls (PCBs) with assigned World Health Organization toxic equivalency factors (WHO-TEFs) and two additional PCBs were screened...

Conazole fungicides are widely used in agriculture despite their suspected endocrine disrupting properties. In this study, the potential (anti-)androgenic effects of ten conazoles were assessed and mutually compared with existing data. Effects of cyproconazole (CYPRO), fluconazole (FLUC), flusilazole (FLUS), hexaconazole (HEXA), myconazole (MYC), p...

Phytoestrogens are plant-derived estrogen-like compounds that are increasingly used for their suggested health promoting properties, even by healthy, young women. However, scientific concerns exist regarding potential adverse effects on female reproduction. In this study, naringenin (NAR), 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN), genistein (GEN), coumestrol (COU...

The degenerative process in Parkinson's disease is largely limited to the dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia. Cellular mechanisms that are implicated in parkinsonian neurodegeneration include mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, disturbance of intracellular calcium homeostasis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. A major characteri...

Targeting the estrogen pathway has been proven effective in the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. There are currently two common groups of anti-estrogenic compounds used in the clinic; Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs, e.g. tamoxifen) and Selective Estrogen Enzyme Modulators (SEEMs e.g. letrozole). Among various na...

Humans are exposed to distinct structural classes of insecticides with different neurotoxic modes of action. Since calcium homeostasis is essential for proper neuronal function and development, we investigated the effects of insecticides from different classes (pyrethroid: (α-)cypermethrin; organophosphate: chlorpyrifos; organochlorine: endosulfan;...

For a better understanding of species-specific relative effect potencies (REPs), responses of dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) were assessed. REPs were calculated using chemical-activated luciferase gene expression assays (CALUX) derived from guinea pig, rat and mouse cell lines. Almost all 20 congeners tested in the rodent cell lines were partial agon...

Flavanones such as naringenin (NAR) and 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN) are increasingly used as dietary supplements despite scientific concern regarding adverse effects on female reproduction upon excessive intake. In the present study, NAR and 8-PN (0.3-1μM) significantly affected porcine oocyte maturation in vitro by decreasing cumulus expansion. In a...

Risk assessment for mixtures of dioxin-like compounds uses the toxic equivalency factor (TEF) approach. Although current WHO-TEFs are mostly based on oral administration, they are commonly used to determine toxicity equivalencies (TEQs) in human blood or tissues. However, the use of “intake” TEFs to calculate systemic TEQs in for example human bloo...