Cumulative dietary risk assessment of chronic acetylcholinesterase inhibition by residues of pesticides

Abstract

A retrospective cumulative risk assessment of dietary exposure to pesticide residues was conducted for chronic inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. The pesticides considered in this assessment were identified and characterised in a previous scientific report on the establishment of cumulative assessment groups of pesticides for their effects on the nervous system. The exposure assessments used monitoring data collected by Member States under their official pesticide monitoring programmes in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and individual food consumption data from 10 populations of consumers from different countries and from different age groups. Exposure estimates were obtained by means of a two-dimensional probabilistic model, which was implemented in SAS ® software. The characterisation of cumulative risk was supported by an uncertainty analysis based on expert knowledge elicitation. For each of the 10 populations, it is concluded with varying degrees of certainty that cumulative exposure to pesticides contributing to the chronic inhibition of acetylcholinesterase does not exceed the threshold for regulatory consideration established by risk managers.

Retrospective cumulative dietary risk assessment of craniofacial alterations by residues of pesticides

“…ambiguity, accuracy, sampling uncertainty, missing data, missing studies, assumptions, excluded factors, use of fixed values, etc.). All sources of uncertainty identified in previous CRAs on the nervous system and the thyroid (EFSA, 2020a , b , 2021a ) were critically reviewed for their applicability to the present assessment.…”

“…These reports concerned two acute effects on the nervous system and two chronic effects on the thyroid gland. In February 2021, EFSA completed another retrospective CRA regarding chronic acetyl cholinesterase inhibition (EFSA, 2021a ).…”

Risk Assessment of Combined Exposure to Multiple Chemicals at the European Food Safety Authority: Principles, Guidance Documents, Applications and Future Challenges

“…The threshold of regulatory consideration, as the protection goal for the CRA, was set at the 99.9th percentile by risk managers at EU level. Taking into consideration the different nature of the hazards, chronic calculations were performed for the effects on the thyroid [ 64 ], while both acute and chronic estimates were calculated for the nervous system [ 65 , 66 ].…”

Mixture Risk Assessment of Complex Real-Life Mixtures—The PANORAMIX Project

“…In Europe, this classification was first recommended by EFSA for the risk assessment of pesticides, with thyroid and nervous system as common target organs [ 61 ], and recently this recommendation was further expanded to other chemical classes and other endpoints [ 62 ]. Several CAGs have been proposed so far, including common mechanisms or modes of action, or common adverse outcome pathways [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. This categorisation has allowed a component-based MRA to be established on the default assumption of dose addition, meaning that the individual hazard quotients of known chemicals within the same CAG are simply added up to a hazard index (HI) [ 67 , 68 ].…”