Chair: Jamie Young, University of Louisville
Co-Chair: Jennifer Schlezinger, Boston University School of Public Health

Primary Endorser: Mixtures Specialty Section


Endorser(s): Graduate Student Leadership Committee


Endorser(s): Metals Specialty Section

Historically, the relationship between human disease and environmental exposures has been studied through the lens of individual environmental chemicals. Standards set to protect human health have relied on the mechanistic information obtained from research on a single environmental chemical; yet, we are not exposed to a single chemical at a time. In fact, we are exposed to a mixture of various classes of chemicals throughout our lifetime (i.e., metals and organics). In a way, we are a human exposure cocktail experiment, involving hundreds of chemicals, and these mixtures may combine in a way that changes their toxicity. Given the abundant natural and anthropogenic sources of metals in everyday life, exposure to mixtures containing metals is of particular concern. Over the past decade, researchers have begun working across disciplines to characterize real-life exposures and examine the implications of these chemical mixtures in human health. Scientists are developing tools and experimental strategies to predict how chemical mixtures interact with biological systems to adversely impact human health. However, even the most complex tools and tests used today do not include all the chemicals that we are simultaneously exposed to throughout our life, with limited studies considering the impact of chemical mixtures during windows of susceptibility. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has recognized these critical knowledge gaps, making assessment of mixtures and combined exposures a major component of their Strategic Plans. This Symposium will highlight the cutting-edge research being conducted across metal mixture exposure assessment, in vitro and in vivo toxicological assessments of mixtures’ effects, and human multi-metal exposures. Presentations include discussions of novel risk assessment approaches, biological media used for biomarker analyses, and models for whole-life exposures. Further, metal mixtures’ effects on human-relevant adverse outcomes and metal mixture exposures of emerging concern will be presented.