TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children
This standard action is of type: Risks
Note
This standard action was developed within the FNS-Cloud project (https://www.fns-cloud.eu). Related consumption data and example conversion scripts for uploading data will be made available in the FNS Cloud (status 05/2022: in progress).
Introduction
This standard action performs a TDS-based probabilistic risk assessment regarding the exposure of German children to methylmercury. Total Diet Study (TDS) data are combined with food consumption data, and stratification of the calculations regarding region, season and production type (organic or conventional) can be considered. Total Diet Studies (TDS) are an appropriate method to representatively reflect background occurrence levels of substances in food in a population’s diet. More than 90 % of the diet are covered, the foods are prepared as consumed and pooled to composite samples prior to chemical analysis. Next to the representation of almost the total diet in Germany, the German TDS (BfR MEAL Study) also allows to elaborate potential differences in occurrence of substances in different stratifications. The stratifications consider four different regions (North, East, South and West Germany), two different seasons (which are in this demo fictitious summer and winter season), and the production type (i.e. organic versus conventional production).
In this example, consumption data for children in Germany and fictive TDS occurrence data for methylmercury are used. The commonly used lower bound (LB) or upper bound (UB) scenarios are used for treatment of censored data. Exposure is calculated applying the Observed Individual Means model. The exposure is expressed as µg per kg body weight and day for the mean, and the 50th, 90th, 95th, 97.5th, 99th and 99.9th percentiles of the exposure distribution and the relative contributions from modelled foods or main food groups to total exposure is displayed. For risk assessment, the exposure distribution is compared to the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) of 1.3 µg per kg body weight and day set for methylmercury set by EFSA. The risk in indicated by the risk characterisation ratio exposure/hazard \(E/H\) quantified by exposure relative to the TWI.
Standard action options
In this standard action, potential differences between stratification related exposure assessments are demonstrated. The user is able to select and combine the above-mentioned stratifications and compare exposure outcomes and risks.
By selection of a certain region the occurrence data from this region will be combined with the respective consumptions data from children living in this region.
By selection of a certain season the occurrence data from this season will be combined with consumption events during this season. Summer season is defined from April to September and Winter season from October till March.
By selection of a type of production occurrence data from organically or conventionally produced foods will be combined with the overall consumption, since information on consumption of organically or conventionally produced foods is not included in the consumption data.
Exposure from foods that are not stratified according to the above-mentioned characteristics is included on an unspecific basis into the assessments (e.g., the item “pasta” is not sampled in different regions, therefore regional exposure will be calculated by combining regional consumption with the concentration of the unspecified sample).
The assessments can be done either for all individuals included in the consumption survey or can be restricted to consumers only. The restriction will consider consumers of one or more selected TDS (modelled) foods but includes all consumptions of these individuals.
The option to calculate uncertainties analysis results in 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) by resampling the individuals.
Standard action data
| Table Group | Name | Repository | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
Compounds |
Catalogues_FNS_DE_MeHg |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
Effects |
Catalogues_FNS_DE_MeHg |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
Foods |
Catalogues_FNS_DE_MeHg |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
HazardCharacterisations |
Catalogues_FNS_DE_MeHg |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
TotalDietStudy |
Catalogues_FNS_DE_MeHg |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
Concentrations |
Concentrations_FNS_DE_MeHg_SSD |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |
Survey |
Consumptions_DE_VELS_2001-2002 |
Standard Actions/TDS-based long-term exposure and risk assessment of methylmercury for German children |
Fixed |