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Genotoxicity assessment is essential for ensuring chemical safety and mitigating risks to human health and the environment. Traditional methods, reliant on animal models, are time-consuming, costly, and raise ethical concerns. New Approach Methods (NAMs) offer innovative, cost-effective, and ethical alternatives, playing a pivotal role in both traditional and next-generation risk assessment (NGRA) by minimizing the need for animal testing, particularly in genotoxicity evaluations. However, the development of NAMs often overlooks the particular physicochemical properties of nanomaterials (NMs), which significantly influence their toxicological behaviour and can interfere with genotoxicity evaluation. This underscores an urgent need for the standardization and adaptation of NAMs to address nano- and advanced material-specific genotoxicity challenges. In this review, we summarize the challenges associated with genotoxicity testing of NMs and highlight the suitability of existing in vitro and in silico NAMs for NMs and advanced materials, enabling genotoxicity testing across various exposure routes and organ systems. Despite considerable progress, regulatory validation remains constrained by the absence of approved test guidelines and standardized protocols. To achieve regulatory acceptance, it is crucial to adapt NAMs to NM-specific exposure scenarios, refine test systems to better mimic human biology, develop tailored in vitro protocols, and ensure thorough characterisation of NMs both in pristine form and dispersed in culture medium. Collaborative efforts among scientists, regulators, industry, and advocacy groups are vital to improving the reliability and regulatory acceptance of NAMs. By addressing these challenges, NAMs have the potential to revolutionize genotoxicity risk assessment, advancing it towards a more sustainable, efficient and ethical framework.
2025
A Nano Risk Governance Portal supporting risk governance of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products
isk governance (RG) of nanomaterials (NMs) has been at the focus of the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union, through the funding of three research projects (Gov4Nano, NANORIGO, RISKGONE). The extensive collaboration of the three projects, in various scientific topics, aimed to enhance RG of NMs and provide a solid scientific basis for effective collaboration of the various types of stakeholders involved. In this paper the development of a digital Nano Risk Governance Portal (NRGP) and associated information technology (IT) infrastructure supporting the risk governance of (engineered) nanomaterials and nano-enabled products, is presented, alongside considerations for future work and enhancement within the domain of Advanced Materials (AdMa). This paper describes several elements of this digital portal, which serves as a single-entry point for all stakeholders in need of, or interested in, nano-risk governance aspects. In its simplest form, the NRGP allows users to be efficiently guided towards tailored information about nanomaterials, risk governance concepts, guidance documents, harmonized methods for risk assessment, publicly accessible data, information and knowledge, as well as a directory of tools, to assess the exposure and hazard of nanomaterials and perform Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) assessment in the context of nano-risk governance. This paper presents the technical implementation and the content of the first version of the NRGP alongside the vision for the future and further plans for development, implementation, hosting and maintenance of the NRGP aimed at ensuring its sustainability. This includes a procedure to link to, or include, currently available and future (nano)material-related (cloud) platforms, decision support systems, tools, guidance, and databases in line with good governance objectives.
2025
CAMS Assessment Report on European Air Quality 2024
The full report provides reference information on air quality in Europe in 2024. The purpose of the report is to present a consistent and accurate estimate of European air quality focusing on key indicators and on the origin of selected pollution episodes. It is intended to support air quality experts in their reporting under air quality legislation by providing an overview over the status of European transboundary air pollution. It contains updated information on key indicators for background air quality for the main regulatory pollutants: ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter of 10 micrometres or less in diameter (PM10) and particulate matter of 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter (PM2.5).
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
2025
Alarmerende funn: Advarer: - Om dette fortsetter blir det ille
Metanutslipp på Svalbard øker i takt med et varmere klima. Nå advarer forskerne om at utslippene vil kunne overstige olje- og energisektoren.
2025
Fine particulate matter (PM) poses a major threat to public health, with organic aerosol (OA) being a key component. Major OA sources, hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA), and oxygenated OA (OOA), have distinct health and environmental impacts. However, OA source apportionment via positive matrix factorization (PMF) applied to aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) or aerosol chemical speciation monitoring (ACSM) data is costly and limited to a few supersites, leaving over 80% of OA data uncategorized in global monitoring networks. To address this gap, we trained machine learning models to predict HOA, BBOA, and OOA using limited OA source apportionment data and widely available organic carbon (OC) measurements across Europe (2010–2019). Our best performing model expanded the OA source data set 4-fold, yielding 85 000 daily apportionment values across 180 sites. Results show that HOA and BBOA peak in winter, particularly in urban areas, while OOA, consistently the dominant fraction, is more regionally distributed with less seasonal variability. This study provides a significantly expanded OA source data set, enabling better identification of pollution hotspots and supporting high-resolution exposure assessments.
2025
New report reveals major risks in turning oceans into carbon sinks | ScienceDaily
Experts say the ocean could help absorb carbon dioxide, but today’s technologies are too uncertain to be scaled up safely. New findings released during COP30 highlight the risks of rushing into marine carbon removal without proper monitoring and verification. With the 1.5°C threshold approaching, researchers stress that emissions cuts must remain the top priority. Ocean-based methods may play a role later, but they need careful oversight first.
2025
Monitoring air quality around airports and nearby cities is crucial to understanding the role of emissions from air traffic and other airport activities. This report analyses air quality in 23 European airports, revealing limited observations in and around airport areas. Only three of the 23 airports had at least one air quality sampling point for NO2, PM2.5 and O3 inside the airport area. Concentrations in nearby cities can be up to double (NO2), 57% higher (PM2.5) and 85% higher (O3) when the wind comes from the airport. EEA air quality maps showed higher annual mean NO2 concentrations in airport areas compared to surrounding regions, with one airport above the 2030 limit value of 20 µg/m³. Annual mean PM2.5 concentrations were also higher in airport areas, with six airports exceeding the revised limit value. The limited number of sampling points makes it challenging to assess trends in NO2, PM2.5 and O3 concentrations. A final chapter of the report presents an overview of available measurements and studies of ultra fine particles (UFP) in the vicinity of airports.
European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)
2025
2025
A pooled analysis of host factors that affect nucleotide excision repair in humans
Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is crucial for repairing bulky lesions and crosslinks in DNA caused by exogenous and endogenous genotoxins. The number of studies that have considered DNA repair as a biomarker is limited, and therefore one of the primary objectives of the European COST Action hCOMET (CA15132) was to assemble and analyse a pooled database of studies with data on NER activity. The database comprised 738 individuals, gathered from 5 laboratories that ran population studies using the comet-based in vitro DNA repair assay. NER activity data in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were normalized and correlated with various host-related factors, including sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and smoking habits. This multifaceted analysis uncovered significantly higher NER activity in female participants compared to males (1.08 ± 0.74 vs. 0.92 ± 0.71; P = .002). Higher NER activity was seen in older subjects (>30 years), and the effect of age was most pronounced in the oldest females, particularly those over 70 years (P = .001). Females with a normal BMI (<25 kg/m2) exhibited the highest levels of NER, whereas the lowest NER was observed in overweight males (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2). No independent effect of smoking was found. After stratification by sex and BMI, higher NER was observed in smoking males (P = .017). The biological implication of higher or lower repair capacity remains unclear; the inclusion of DNA repair as a biomarker in molecular epidemiological trials should elucidate the link between health and disease status.
2025
Microplastic pellets in Arctic marine sediments: a common source or a common process?
Plastic consumption is increasing, and millions of tonnes of plastic are released into the oceans every year. Plastic materials are accumulating in the marine environment, especially on the seafloor. The Arctic is contaminated with plastics, including microplastics (MPs, <5 mm) but occurrences, concentrations and fate are largely unknown. This study aimed at assessing whether MPs accumulate at greater water depths in the Barents Sea, and close to the Longyearbyen settlement, and at understanding the ubiquity and source of a specific type of collected pellets. Surface sediments were collected at seven stations around Svalbard with a box-corer, and three replicates were taken at each station. MPs were extracted through density separation with saturated saltwater. Many pellets were found, and their composition was assessed by pyrolysis-GC/MS. Procedural blanks were performed using field blanks as samples to assess the overall contamination. The composition of all extracted particles was then analysed by μRaman spectroscopy. On average, 3.61 ± 1.45 MPs/100 g (dw) were found. The sea ice station, after blank correction, was more contaminated and displaying a different profile than the other stations, and the deepest station did not show the highest MP concentrations but rather the opposite. Sediments close to Longyearbyen were not more contaminated than the other stations either. Dark pellets of similar aspect were found at all stations, raising the question about a possible common source or process. These pellets were made of several plastic polymers which varied in proportion for each pellet, suggesting a common process was at the origin of those pellets, potentially marine snow formation.
2025
2025
Protein-nanomaterial interaction is a topic of great interest for nanotechnology research, particularly for advancing strategies in nanomedicine and nanosafety. This study explores the thermodynamic signatures associated with the interactions of six TiO2 nanoforms, (differing in their crystalline structure, surface properties and particle size) with bovine serum albumin as model protein. By integrating findings from electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) regarding the free radical generation following interaction, together with information on the stability and conformational changes of the protein during adsorption on TiO2 nanomaterials, we aim to elucidate the binding mechanisms and identify the primary factors influencing nanomaterial's reactivity. The effect of the particle size, crystalline structure and surface properties on the binding parameters, protein structural stability and EPR data is discussed. Finally, the relevant parameters suitable for understanding molecular interactions at the bio/nano interface have been corroborated with the toxicological outcomes resulting from the measurements on the viability, proliferation and real time attachment of relevant cell lines, as well as with the detection of DNA strand breaks and oxidized DNA at the single-cell level. Thermodynamic and EPR parameters emerge as key descriptors for determining adsorption/binding processes and toxic effects of nanomaterials. The rankings with respect to cell damage and to oxidative stress inducing potential follow the same ranking seen in nanomaterial's influence on the BSA structural stability, binding affinity and enthalpic character of the interaction. Our findings highlight the intricate relationships between the parameters governing bio-nano interactions and the toxicity of the nanomaterials, and their significance in assessing nanomaterial safety and efficacy.
2025
Abstract This study introduces a community-focused eCoach recommendation system aimed at enhancing physical activity by leveraging demographic data, wearable sensor inputs, and machine learning algorithms to generate both individual and community-based activity recommendations using advice-based collaborative filtering. Existing eCoaching systems largely focus on personalized feedback without incorporating social reinforcement or group-level motivation, creating a gap in leveraging community influence for sustained health behaviors. Our system combines real-time activity tracking through wearable sensors and advice-based collaborative filtering to deliver adaptive recommendations. We collected data from 31 participants (16 using MOX2-5 sensors and 15 from a public Fitbit-based dataset), targeting daily activity levels to generate actionable guidance. Through decision tree classification and SHAP-based interpretability, we achieved a model accuracy of 99.8%, with F1, precision, recall, and MCC metrics confirming robustness across both balanced and imbalanced datasets. Ethical considerations, including privacy, bias mitigation, and informed consent, were integral to our design and implementation. Limitations include potential biases due to sample size and data imbalances, suggesting the need for future validation on independent datasets. This system demonstrates the potential to integrate with real-world healthcare initiatives, offering trust, transparency, and user engagement opportunities to meet public health objectives.
2025
Quantifying European SF6 emissions from 2005 to 2021 using a large inversion ensemble
Abstract. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a highly potent and long-lived greenhouse gas whose atmospheric concentrations are increasing due to human emissions. In this study, we determine European SF6 emissions from 2005 to 2021 using a large ensemble of atmospheric inversions. To assess uncertainty, we systematically vary key inversion parameters across 986 sensitivity tests and apply a Monte Carlo approach to randomly combine these parameters in 1003 additional inversions. Our analysis focuses on high-emitting countries with robust observational coverage – UK, Germany, France, and Italy – while also examining aggregated EU-27 emissions. SF6 emissions declined across all studied regions except Italy, largely attributed to EU F-gas regulations (2006, 2014), however, national reports underestimated emissions: (i) UK emissions dropped from 68 (47–77) t yr−1 in 2008 to 19 (15–26) t yr−1 in 2018, aligning with the reports from 2018 onward; (ii) French emissions fell from 78 (51–117) t yr−1 (2005) to 35 (19–54) t yr−1 (2021), exceeding reports by 88 %; (iii) Italian emissions fluctuated (25–48 t yr−1), surpassing reports by 107 %; (iv) German emissions declined from 182 (155–251) t yr−1 (2005) to 97 (88–104) t yr−1 (2021), aligning reasonably well with reports; (v) EU-27 emissions decreased from 403 (335–501) t yr−1 (2005) to 225 (191–260) t yr−1 (2021), exceeding reports by 20 %. A substantial drop from 2017 to 2018 mirrored the trend in southern Germany, suggesting regional actions were taken as the 2014 EU regulation took effect. Our sensitivity tests highlight the crucial role of dense monitoring networks in improving inversion reliability. The UK system expansions (2012, 2014) significantly enhanced result robustness, demonstrating the importance of comprehensive observational networks in refining emission estimates.
2025