Roel Vermeulen

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

Literature indicates a potential association between dairy consumption and risk of Parkinson´s disease (PD), especially among men, yet the results remain inconclusive. We investigated this association in a large prospective European cohort. Dietary and non-dietary data was collected from 183,225 participants of the EPIC-for-Neurodegenerative-Diseas...

Rationale Evidence regarding the role of long-term exposure to ultrafine particles (<0.1 μm, UFP) in asthma onset is scarce. Objectives We examined the association between exposure to UFP and asthma development in the Dutch PIAMA (Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy) birth cohort and assessed whether there is an association with UFP...

Assessment of occupational pesticide exposure in epidemiological studies of chronic diseases is challenging. Biomonitoring of current pesticide levels might not correlate with past exposure relevant to disease aetiology, and indirect methods often rely on workers’ imperfect recall of exposures, or job titles. We investigated how the applied exposur...

Background: The relation between blood pressure and kidney cancer risk is well established but complex and different study designs have reported discrepant findings on the relative importance of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). In this study, we sought to describe the temporal relation between diastolic and SBP wit...

Objectives Benzene is a known haematoxin and leukemogen that can cause benzene poisoning (BP), that is, a persistent reduction in white cell counts that is strongly associated with increased risk of lymphohaematopoietic malignancies. Data are needed on the exposure–response, particularly at low doses and susceptible populations for clinical and reg...

High-resolution air quality (AQ) maps based on street-by-street measurements have become possible through large-scale mobile measurement campaigns. Such campaigns have produced data-only maps and have been used to produce empirical models [i.e., land use regression (LUR) models]. Assuming that all road segments are measured, we developed a mixed mo...

Background: Mechanistic data is increasingly used in hazard identification of chemicals. However, the volume of data is large, challenging the efficient identification and clustering of relevant data. Objectives: We investigated whether evidence identification for hazard assessment can become more efficient and informed through an automated appr...

Exposures at work have a major impact on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Current risk reduction policies and strategies are informed by existing scientific evidence, which is limited due to the challenges of studying the complex relationship between exposure at work and outside work and health. We define the working life exposome as all occupation...

In recent decades, the possibility that use of mobile communicating devices, particularly wireless (mobile and cordless) phones, may increase brain tumour risk, has been a concern, particularly given the considerable increase in their use by young people. MOBI-Kids, a 14-country (Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, I...

Indoor dust has been postulated as an important matrix for residential pesticide exposure. However, there is a lack of information on presence, concentrations and determinants of multiple pesticides in dust in residential homes close to treated fields. Our objective was to characterize the spatial and temporal variance of pesticides in house dust,...

Background and aim Occupational exposures are important, preventable causes of COPD. We previously found an increased risk of COPD among six occupations by analysing lifetime job histories and lung function data in the population-based UK Biobank cohort. We aimed to build on these findings and elucidate the underlying potential causal agents to foc...

Epigenetic aging biomarkers are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We evaluated if occupational exposure to three established chemical carcinogens is associated with acceleration of epigenetic aging. We studied workers in China occupationally exposed to benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE) or formaldehyde by measuring personal air expos...

Objectives The Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts (OMEGA-NET) was set up to enable optimization of the use of industrial and general population cohorts across Europe to advance aetiological research. High-quality harmonized exposure assessment is crucial to derive comparable results and to enable pooled a...

Background: Chemical risk assessment can benefit from integrating data across multiple evidence bases, especially in exposure-response curve (ERC) modeling when data across the exposure range are sparse. Methods: We estimated the ERC for benzene and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), by fitting linear and spline-based Bayesian meta-regression models...

Diesel engine exhaust (DEE) is classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Using a targeted proteomics approach, we aimed to identify proteins associated with DEE and characterize these markers to understand the mechanisms of DEE-induced carcinogenicity. In this cross-sectional molecular epidemiology study, we measured elemental carbon (EC) using a p...

Little is known about personal and time-integrated exposure to past and current used pesticides in agricultural areas and within-family exposure similarities. We aimed to assess exposure to pesticides using silicone wristbands in child/guardian pairs living on farms and in villages within two agricultural areas in South Africa. Using silicone wrist...

In order to achieve an integrated radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) dose assessment, detailed information about source-specific exposure duration and output power is needed. We developed an Integrated Exposure Model (IEM) to combine energy absorbed due to use of and exposure to RF-EMF sources and applied it to a sample of the general...

Background Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) is often measured with personal exposimeters, but the accuracy of measurements can be hampered as carrying the devices on-body may result in body shielding. Further, the compact design may compromise the frequency selectivity of the sensor. The aim of this study was to compare me...

Benzene is a recognized hematotoxin and leukemogen; however, its mechanism of action in humans remain unclear. To provide insight into the processes underlying benzene hematotoxicity, we performed high-resolution metabolomic (HRM) profiling of plasma collected from a cross-sectional study of 33 healthy workers exposed to benzene (median 8-hr time-w...

Objective To investigate the association of estimated all-day and evening whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) doses with sleep disturbances and objective sleep measures in preadolescents. Methods We included preadolescents aged 9–12 years from two population-based birth cohorts, the Dutch Generation R Study (n = 974) and the...

Introduction Exposures at work have a major impact on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Current risk reduction policies and strategies are informed by existing scientific evidence, which is limited due to the challenges of studying the complex relationship between exposure in the work place and outside work, and health. We define the working-life e...

Introduction Working life exposures contribute significantly to non-communicable disease development. However, the challenge remains on how to map occupational exposures during the entire career and link exposures with health outcomes. In this context, the EU EPHOR project aims to characterize the internal exposome, by characterizing exposure bioma...

Introduction The Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts (OMEGA-NET) was set up to enable optimization of using industrial and general population cohorts across Europe to advance aetiological research. High quality harmonised exposure assessment is crucial for such international occupational health research....

Introduction and Objectives The International Agency for Research on Cancer confirmed night shift work as a ‘probable’ carcinogen in an updated evaluation (2019). Noting that evidence from human studies is still inconclusive, in particular due to the lack of prospective cohort studies with detailed exposure assessment. We prospectively examined dif...

Introduction Pesticides are widely used by farmers in Malaysia but there is limited information on exposures experienced. Objective To determine Malaysian farmer’s exposure from pesticide spray events through the collection and analysis of urine samples. Method 25 farmers growing either rice (n=16) or vegetables/fruits (n=7) from the east coast o...

The exposome concept was conceived in 2005 as a way to represent non-genetic drivers of health and disease. The exposome encompasses all non-genetic risk factors experienced during a person’s life (the external exposome) and its relation to biological responses inside the human body (the internal exposome). This concept was born out of the recognit...

Background Employment is an essential component of adult life, and occupation is a major determinant of health. Despite profound changes in working life, there has been little coordinated European occupational health research. Objectives We present results from the HERA international project funded by the EU Horizon2020 program, to set priorities...

Introduction Occupational exposures are important, preventable causes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We previously found an increased COPD risk among six occupations by analysing lifetime job-histories and lung function data in the population-based UK Biobank cohort. Objectives We aimed to build upon these findings and elucidate...

Introduction We used hierarchical and penalization models to explore occupational risks associated with lung cancer while accounting for exposures to multiple known carcinogenic exposures. Methods We pooled lung cancer case-control study subjects from 14 European and Canadian studies. Associations between employment in 1,506 five-digit ISCO-68 occ...

Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. Metal exposure has been suggested as a possible environmental risk factor by many epidemiological studies, but results have been inconsistent. Additionally, existing reviews on metal exposure and PD risk lack careful screening for study design and quality, e...

Introduction Assessment of occupational pesticide exposure in epidemiological studies of chronic diseases is particularly challenging. Biomonitoring of current pesticide levels might not correlate with past exposure relevant to disease etiology, and indirect methods often rely on workers’ imperfect recall of exposures, or workers’ job titles. With...

Objective Case-control studies use job- and industry-specific modules to systematically obtain details about the subjects’ work tasks. This reduces respondent burden over asking the same questions for every job but relies on accurate module assignment to ensure relevant questions are asked. Methods In a multi-center hospital-based case-control stu...

Background Excess bodyweight and related metabolic perturbations have been implicated in kidney cancer aetiology, but the specific molecular mechanisms underlying these relationships are poorly understood. In this study, we sought to identify circulating metabolites that predispose kidney cancer and to evaluate the extent to which they are influenc...

Background: Evidence is accumulating that immune cells play a prominent role in pancreatic cancer aetiology but prospective investigations are missing. Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study with 502 pairs of incident pancreatic cancer cases and match...

Pooling metabolomics data across studies is often desirable to increase the statistical power of the analysis. However, this can raise methodological challenges as several preanalytical and analytical factors could introduce differences in measured concentrations and variability between datasets. Specifically, different studies may use variable sam...

Background: Trihalomethanes (THMs) and nitrate are widespread chemicals in drinking water associated with colorectal cancer risk but mechanisms are not well understood. Objectives: We explored the association between exposure to THMs and nitrate in drinking water and inflammation markers, and the link with colorectal cancer risk. Methods: A su...

Background: The mitochondrial metabolism has been associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) risk. Recent evidence also suggests the involvement of the genetic variability of the mitochondrial function in several traits involved in PDAC aetiology. However, a systematic investigation of the genetic variability of mitochondrial genome (...

Background Large nation- and region-wide epidemiological studies have provided important insights into the health effects of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution. Evidence from these studies for the long-term effects of ultrafine particles (UFP), however is lacking. Reason for this is the shortage of empirical UFP land use regression models...

Background Diesel engine exhaust (DEE) is classified as a potential carcinogen for bladder cancer in humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We aimed to compare bladder cancer incidence in Western Australian miners against the general population and determine if there was an association with DEE, measured as Elemental Carbon. Me...

Background: Changes in immune marker levels in the blood could be used to improve the early detection of tumor-associated inflammatory processes. To increase predictiveness and utility in cancer detection, intra-individual long-term stability in cancer-free individuals is critical for biomarker candidates as to facilitate the detection of deviatio...

Background Particulate matter (PM) air pollution exposure has been linked to lung function in adolescents, but little is known about the relevance of specific PM components and ultrafine particles (UFP). Objectives To investigate the associations of long-term exposure to PM elemental composition and UFP with lung function at age 16 years. Methods...

The domestic combustion of smoky (bituminous) coal in the Chinese counties of Xuanwei and Fuyuan, are responsible for some of the highest rates of lung cancer in the world. Cancer rates vary between coal producing regions (deposits) in the area, with coals from Laibin exhibiting particularly high risks and smokeless (anthracite) coal exhibiting low...

Urinary mutagenicity reflects systemic exposure to complex mixtures of genotoxic/carcinogenic agents and is linked to tumor development. Coal combustion emissions (CCE) and diesel engine exhaust (DEE) are associated with cancers of the lung and other sites, but their influence on urinary mutagenicity is unclear. We investigated associations between...

Pooling metabolomics data across studies is often desirable to increase the statistical power of the analysis. However, this can raise methodological challenges as several preanalytical and analytical factors could introduce differences in measured concentrations and variability between datasets. Specifically, different studies may use variable sam...

Background Findings and limitations of previous studies on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and pancreatic cancer risk support conducting further research in prospective cohorts. Methods We conducted a prospective case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Participants were...

By 2030, more than 80% of Europe's population will live in an urban environment. The urban exposome, consisting of factors such as where we live and work, where and what we eat, our social network, and what chemical and physical hazards we are exposed to, provides important targets to improve population health. The EXPANSE (EXposome Powered tools f...

Background: Alcohol is an established risk factor for several cancers, but modest alcohol-cancer associations may be missed due to measurement error in self-reported assessments. The identification of biomarkers of habitual alcohol intake may enhance evidence on the role of alcohol in cancer onset. Methods: Untargeted metabolomics was used to ident...

Background: Diesel engine exhaust (DEE) is classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer because of its carcinogenicity to the lung. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of DEE carcinogenicity are not well understood. Methods: We previously conducted a cross-sectional molecular epidemiology stud...

Background Endometrial cancer is strongly associated with obesity and dysregulation of metabolic factors such as estrogen and insulin signaling are causal risk factors for this malignancy. To identify additional novel metabolic pathways associated with endometrial cancer we performed metabolomic analyses on pre-diagnostic plasma samples from 853 ca...

Background Millions of workers worldwide are exposed to diesel engine exhaust (DEE), a known genotoxic carcinogen. Alu retroelements are repetitive DNA sequences that can multiply and compromise genomic stability. There is some evidence linking altered Alu repeats to cancer and elevated mortality risks. However, whether Alu repeats are influenced b...

Background: Alcohol is an established risk factor for several cancers, but modest alcohol-cancer associations may be missed due to measurement error in self-reported assessments. Biomarkers of habitual alcohol intake may provide novel insight into the relationship between alcohol and cancer risk. Methods: Untargeted metabolomics was used to iden...

Objectives: We investigated general job demands as a risk factor for lung cancer as well as their role in the association between occupational prestige and lung cancer. Methods: In 13 case-control studies on lung cancer, as part of the international SYNERGY project, we applied indices for physical (PHI) and psychosocial (PSI) job demands - each...

Background and aims Emerging evidence suggests a role of amino acids (AAs) in the development of various diseases including renal failure, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and cancer. However, mechanistic pathways and the effects of dietary AA intakes on circulating levels and disease outcomes are unclear. We aimed to compare protein and AA intakes, with...

Background: Alcohol is an established risk factor for several cancers, but modest alcohol-cancer associations may be missed due to measurement error in self-reported assessments. The identification of biomarkers of habitual alcohol intake may enhance evidence on the role of alcohol in cancer onset. Methods: Untargeted metabolomics was used to ident...

Objectives To date, only a few studies have investigated the associations between occupational exposures and respiratory outcomes longitudinally in the general population. We investigated the associations between occupational exposures and the development of respiratory symptoms and airway obstruction in the Lifelines Cohort Study. Methods We incl...

Most studies of severe/fatal COVID-19 risk have used routine/hospitalisation data without detailed pre-morbid characterisation. Using the community-based UK Biobank cohort, we investigate risk factors for COVID-19 mortality in comparison with non-COVID-19 mortality. We investigated demographic, social (education, income, housing, employment), lifes...

Background: A growing body of evidence suggests that alterations of dietary fatty acid (FA) profiles are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, data from large-scale epidemiological studies using circulating FA measurements to objectively assess individual FA and FA categories are scarce. Methods: To investigate the association b...

Introduction: Humans are exposed to multiple environmental chemicals via different sources resulting in complex real-life exposure patterns. Insight into these patterns is important for applications such as linkage to health effects and (mixture) risk assessment. By providing internal exposure levels of (metabolites of) chemicals, biomonitoring stu...

Background Little is known about radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF) from mobile technology and resulting dose in young people. We describe modeled integrated RF dose in European children and adolescents combining own mobile device use and surrounding sources. Methods Using an integrated RF model, we estimated the daily RF dose in the brain...

Objective To investigate the association between estimated whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) dose, using an improved integrated RF-EMF exposure model, and cognitive function in preadolescents and adolescents. Methods Cross-sectional analysis in preadolescents aged 9–11 years and adolescents aged 17–18 years from the Dutch...

Studies of the health effects of ultrafine particles (UFPs) in large nationwide cohorts are currently hampered by a lack of knowledge about spatial and spatiotemporal variations in regional background UFPs. We measured the UFP (10–300 nm) at 20 regional background locations (3 × 2 weeks) across the Netherlands and a reference site continuously over...

Studies reporting on associations between short-term exposure to outdoor fine (PM2.5), and ultrafine particles (UFP) and blood pressure and lung function have been inconsistent. Few studies have characterized exposure by personal monitoring, which especially for UFP may have resulted in substantial exposure measurement error. We investigated the as...

Mechanisms underlying adverse birth and later in life health effects from exposure to air pollution during the prenatal period have not been not fully elucidated, especially in the context of mixtures. We assessed the effects of prenatal exposure to mixtures of air pollutants of particulate matter (PM), PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides, NO2, NO x , ult...

Rationale In the last decade, due to expansion of greenhouses and irrigated farms, the use of pesticides in Ethiopia has increased 6-13-fold leading to potential health risks. Objective To investigate if occupational exposure to pesticides is associated with respiratory health effects in farmers and farm workers from commercial farming systems. Met...

To better understand the role of individual and lifestyle factors in human disease, an exposome‐wide association study was performed to investigate within a single‐study anthropometry measures and lifestyle factors previously associated with B‐cell lymphoma (BCL). Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition study, 2402 i...

Objective Metals have been suggested as a risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but only retrospective studies are available to date. We compared metal levels in prospectively collected blood samples from ALS patients and controls, to explore whether metals are associated with ALS mortality. Methods A nested ALS case–control study w...

Objectives We evaluated the risk of lung cancer associated with ever working as a painter, duration of employment and type of painter by histological subtype as well as joint effects with smoking, within the SYNERGY project. Methods Data were pooled from 16 participating case–control studies conducted internationally. Detailed individual occupatio...

Rationale: Few longitudinal studies have assessed the relationship between occupational exposures and lung function decline in the general population, with sufficiently long follow-up. Objectives: Our objective was to examine this potential association in two large cohorts (ECRHS and SAPALDIA). Methods: General population samples aged 18 to 62...

Background: Polyphenols are natural compounds with anticarcinogenic properties in cellular and animal models, but epidemiological evidence determining the associations of these compounds with thyroid cancer (TC) is lacking. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relations between blood concentrations of 36 polyphenols and TC risk...

The specific absorption rate (SAR) induced by wireless radiofrequency (RF) systems depends on different parameters. Previously, SAR was mainly assessed under conditions of a single frequency and technology and for a limited number of localized RF sources. The current and emerging mobile systems involve a wider range of usage scenarios and are frequ...

Aim: Inflammation represents a potential pathway through which socioeconomic position (SEP) is biologically embedded. Materials & methods: We analyzed inflammatory biomarkers in response to life course SEP by integrating multi-omics DNA-methylation, gene expression and protein level in 178 European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutritio...

Objective To assess the association between estimated whole-brain and lobe-specific radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) doses, using an improved integrated RF-EMF exposure model, and brain volumes in preadolescents at 9–12 years old. Methods Cross-sectional analysis in preadolescents aged 9–12 years from the Generation R Study, a popula...

Background: The recent COVID-19 outbreak has generated an unprecedented public health crisis, with millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Using hospital-based or mortality data, several COVID-19 risk factors have been identified, but these may be confounded or biased. Methods: Using SARS-CoV-2 infection test data (...

Sustained B-cell activation is an important mechanism contributing to B-cell lymphoma (BCL). We aimed to validate four previously reported B-cell activation markers predictive of BCL risk (sCD23, sCD27, sCD30, and CXCL13) and to examine their possible mediating effects on the association between anthropometric and lifestyle factors and major BCL su...

Rationale: The association between airborne occupational exposures and lung function level is inconsistent in the general population. Moreover, little is known about the association between occupational exposures and annual lung function decline. Objectives: We investigated the association between occupational exposures and lung function level a...

Background: The genotoxicity of benzene has been investigated in dozens of biomonitoring studies, mainly by studying (classical) chromosomal aberrations (CAs) or micronuclei (MN) as markers of DNA damage. Both have been shown to be predictive of future cancer risk in cohort studies and could, therefore, potentially be used for risk assessment of g...