Autor(es): Martins, Carla ; Viegas, Carla ; Eriksen, Elke ; Graff, Pål ; Afanou, Anani Komlavi ; Straumfors, Anne ; Twarużek, Magdalena ; Grajewski, Jan ; Kosicki, Robert ; Viegas, Susana
Data: 2025
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/185047
Origem: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Assunto(s): exposure assessment; human biomonitoring; mycotoxins; occupational hygiene; waste management; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Correcão em: Frontiers in Public Health, Volume 13, Article number 1589437, 2025 Funding Information: The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Polish Minister of Education and Science under the program \u201CRegional Initiative of Excellence\u201D in 2019\u20132022 (Grant No. 008/RID/2018/19) and by Instituto Polit\u00E9cnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal for funding the Projects IPL/IDI&CA2024/WWTPS Valor ESTeSL and IPL/IDI&CA2024/MycoSOS_ESTeSL. H&TRC authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT/MCTES national support through the UIDB/05608/2020 (https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/05608/2020 ) and UIDP/05608/2020 (https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/05608/2020 ). Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2025 Martins, Viegas, Eriksen, Graff, Afanou, Straumfors, Twarużek, Grajewski, Kosicki and Viegas.
Introduction: Waste management represents an occupational setting where fungi are significant contaminants. This study aimed to assess the exposure of waste workers to mycotoxins through a human biomonitoring study. Methods: A total of 33 workers and 19 controls provided spot urine samples to determine 10 mycotoxins’ urinary biomarkers using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Risk characterization was performed using hazard quotient and margin of exposure assessments. Results: The results indicated that workers were exposed to six out of the 10 mycotoxins tested, with the following detection rates: deoxynivalenol (91%, 30/33), ochratoxin A (33%, 11/33), zearalenone (17%, 5/33), α-zearalenol (12%, 4/33), β-zearalenol (12%, 4/33), and HT-2 toxin (3%, 1/33). Within controls and outwith controls, were exposed to 5/10 and 2/10 mycotoxins, respectively. All participants exhibited hazard quotients for deoxynivalenol and zearalenone below one, indicating that the exposure is unlikely to pose a health risk. However, when considering the margin of exposure determined for ochratoxin A, 18% of the total participants presented results below 200 for non-neoplastic effects, and 100% of the total participants presented values below 10,000 for neoplastic effects, suggesting potential health concerns that require further assessment. Discussion: This study highlights the need for future research on occupational exposure to mycotoxins in waste management settings.
