6 EC
Semester 2, period 6
5254HUET6Y
This course will teach you how to evaluate the exposure to and effects of chemicals in the environment. This course focuses on environmental toxicology, which deals with effects of chemicals in the environment on wildlife and human health, covering the realm of effects ranging from molecular and cellular to whole organism and ecosystem effects.
General aim:
The main aim of this course is to understand the biological effects of chemicals in the environment on organisms, including humans, and how to measure them.
Content:
Students will obtain a sound theoretical background in the major concepts in toxicology. Topics include chemical uptake and metabolism. Molecular mechanism of toxicity like neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity, carcinogenicity and epidemiological effects will be discussed. Biochemical and physiological effects on individual to community and population level will be described. Major groups of toxicants that will be discussed include pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, metals, flame retardants, endocrine disrupting chemicals and microplastics. State of the art toxicity testing using metabolomics, in vitro and in vivo assays are presented and dose-response modeling will be covered. Students will perform their own toxicity tests using different standard toxicity tests. Biomonotoring of human exposure to toxic chemicals will be addressed. One important aspect of the course is the risk assessment of chemicals: when do we say that the exposure to a chemical is safe and when is it hazardous? Students will learn how to perform risk assessment as it is done in the real world, taking into account the exposure, effects on humans and wildlife, and other mitigating factors.
Literature will be provided during the course. Suggested reading: Walker et al, Principles of Ecotoxicology, 4th Edition, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4398-6266-7
Demonstrate how partitioning properties affect the environmental fate of chemicals
Discuss how toxicokinetic processes (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME)) determine internal exposure to chemicals
Explain the mode of action by which compounds may cause neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity, endocrine disruption, or carcinogenesis
Discuss the environmental presence, speciation, and consequent adverse effects of specific compound groups like metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pesticides and plastics
Choose different test methods used in toxicology (in vitro, in vivo, epidemiology, ecological studies), including “omics” methodologies
Describe how biomarkers and bioassays can be applied in monitoring strategies for environmental quality assessment, including the concept of effect-directed analysis (EDA) to identify bio-active, but unknown compounds
Paraphrase how human and environmental risk assessment is performed based on Paracelsus’ paradigm, and make simple calculations to determine margins of exposure to threshold values
Determine a dose-response relationship of self-acquired toxicity data, including results from mixture experiments
|
Activity |
Number of hours |
| Lectures |
32 |
| Practicum |
24 |
|
Selfstudy |
168 |
The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
0.8 (40%) Tentamen | Must be ≥ 5.5 |
|
0.2 (10%) Open questions practical work | Must be ≥ 5.5 |
|
1 (50%) Tentamen 2 |
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
| Weeknummer | Onderwerpen |
| 1 | L01 Introduction L02 Dose-response L03 ADME L04 Chemical properties, bioaccumulation, biomagnificication L05 Uptake, elimination kinetics, toxicology L06 Human test studies - animal L07 Ecotox test studies L08 Epidemiology L09 Human biomonitoring L10 Ecotoxicological effects at higher levels |
| 2 | L11 Mixture toxicity L12 TEF concept L13 In vitro bioassays L14 Effect-based monitoring L15 EDA L16 Microplastics L17 Metals |
| 3 | L18 Neurotox L19 Developmental tox L20 Metabolomics L21 Carcinogenicity L22 EDCs L23 Risk assessment Environment |
| 4 | Quizzes & Exam |