Advancing knowledge on the impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on human health

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination “Living and working in a health-promoting environment”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed, tailored and contributing to most of the following expected outcomes:

• Environmental and health policies reducing exposure to micro- and nanoplastics and preventing their potential health impacts are supported with up-to-date scientific evidence, standards, tools and methodologies;
• Public authorities and the scientific community have access to FAIR^[1] data on realistic human exposures to micro- and nanoplastics and their potential impacts on human health based on real-world scenarios across living and working environments;
• Citizens are informed about the impacts of exposure to micro- and nanoplastics on health and adopt behaviours protecting health and reducing human impacts on the environment;
• Industry is supported in the assessment of products’ safety and sustainability;
• Existing major knowledge gaps in the understanding of the health impacts of exposure to micro- and nanoplastics are filled and mitigation measures based on robust evidence are promoted;
• Public authorities and regulators are supported with evidence-based guidance to design health policies.

Plastics are an important material in our economy that are everywhere in our daily lives but can present negative environmental and health impacts. A significant amount of plastic ends up in the environment, degrading into micro- or nano-sized plastic particles that are defined as micro- or nanoplastics (MNPs). MNPs can be detected in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide in food, water, air and consumer products. These MNPs have been documented to accumulate in the human body into cells and tissues (e.g. liver, kidney, gastrointestinal track, placenta, testicles) and cause associated adverse biological effects (e.g. inflammatory response, geno-, cyto-, neuro- and nephron-, respiratory and reproductive toxicity). Exposure routes for MNPs into the human body can be through inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact and translocation of nanoplastics and small microplastics through tissues and organs can occur. Furthermore, it has been documented that MNPs can cause additional harm by releasing specific chemical additives with potentially negative health impacts. However, because microplastics are an emerging contaminant and research on the causality between exposure to MNPs and health impacts is still at a relatively early stage, the evidence on the health risks of exposure to MNPs is scattered and numerous knowledge gaps still persist.

Research activities under this topic should strengthen the evidence on the impacts of micro- and nanoplastics exposure on human health, considering living and working environments and different exposure routes (inhalation, ingestion and dermal exposure). Proposals should focus on realistic concentrations of tested particles and exposures to a variety of sizes, shapes and chemical compositions of MNPs materials and advance in the comparability between studies. Moreover, research activities should take into account recent policy developments, support relevant policy gaps and needs and support the work on standardisation of analytical methods.

More specifically, research actions under this topic should include several of the following activities:

• Increase comparability and reproducibility between studies by means of a better optimisation, validation and standardisation of the analytical methods, protocols and methodologies to collect MNPs in the environment and detect and quantify the exposure in the human body and in the environment;
• Study the causal mechanisms of action and pathways involved on molecular, cellular and organism level effects from exposure to MNPs;
• Improve the understanding of the drivers of toxicity and other adverse health effects of MNPs, using realistic environmental samples and considering varying sizes, shapes, concentrations and chemical compositions, and interaction with components in the environment;
• Develop suitable and (environmentally) relevant reference materials that can be used to improve robustness and comparability across laboratories;
• Develop better in-vivo, in-silico and in-vitro models, instruments and methods for risk and hazard assessment harmonised across various types of MNPs. These include long-term exposure and monitoring models, mimicking real-world scenarios and dosimetry and observational studies on humans and development of strategies to integrate experimental and in-silico data;
• Strengthen the existing knowledge on human exposure to micro- and nanoplastics through the development of human biomonitoring studies and the use of specific biomarkers and endpoints;
• Generate evidence on the long-term impacts of MNPs on human health, MNPs’ fate and systemic effects through well-designed and robust systematic studies;
• Provide robust evidence on the exposures to MNPs at work: identify environments with highest concentrations and focus on improving approaches for assessment, prevention and mitigation of occupational exposures;
• Increase the understanding of the environmental routes of exposure to MNPs, considering real-life exposure routes;
• Propose mitigation measures to reduce population exposure to MNPs including collecting evidence on the health impacts of potential alternative materials developed to replace plastics;
• Gain better insights on the interactions between MNPs (and their additives) with other pollutants and/or biological agents and the combined impacts of these interactions on human health (considering also the understanding of individual toxicity effects);
• Gain better insights on the delivery mechanisms and study the elimination process of MNPs in the human body and the microbiome capacity to degrade (or accelerate degradation of) ingested MNPs;
• Promote exchange of knowledge and experiences across MS and policies and engage with regulators and public authorities to ensure suitability and further uptake of relevant results.

Gender and sex related differences should be addressed, where appropriate.

Applicants are encouraged to consider the use of experimental methods not using live animals, where relevant and allowing to obtain data of comparable validity.

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Proposals should adhere to the FAIR^[1] data principles and adopt wherever relevant, data standards and data sharing/access good practices.

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) with respect to the value it could bring in providing an effective interface between research activities and regulatory aspects and/or in translating research results into harmonised test methods and strategies fit for regulatory purpose. In that respect, the JRC will consider collaborating with any successful proposal and this collaboration, when relevant, should be established after the proposal’s approval.

Proposals should also ensure that chemical monitoring including human biomonitoring data are shared in the Information Platform for Chemical Monitoring (IPCHEM)^[3] through involvement with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), and/or in the future Common Data Platform for Chemicals, through involvement with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)^[4] or other relevant decentralised EU agency (such as the European Environment Agency - EEA^[5]) responsible for the specific domain. In that respect, the JRC, ECHA or other relevant decentralised EU agency(ies) should collaborate with any successful proposal and this collaboration, when relevant, should be established after the proposal’s approval.

In order to maximise synergies and increase the impact of the projects, all proposals selected for funding from this topic will form a cluster and be required to participate in common networking and joint activities. Without the prerequisite to detail concrete joint activities, proposals should allocate a sufficient budget for the attendance of regular joint meetings and to cover the costs of any other potential common networking and joint activities. Guidance on the potential activities to be developed can be obtained by consulting the clusters of projects ongoing under the Environment, climate and health portfolio^[6].

Applicants invited to the second stage should provide details of their clinical studies^[7] in the dedicated annex using the template provided in the submission system. As proposals under this topic are expected to include clinical studies, the use of the template is strongly encouraged.

[1] See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.

[2] See definition of FAIR data in the introduction to this work programme part.

[3] https://ipchem.jrc.ec.europa.eu

[4] https://echa.europa.eu

[5] https://www.eea.europa.eu

[6] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/health/environment-and-health_en

[7] Please note that the definition of clinical studies (see introduction to this work programme part) is broad and it is recommended that you review it thoroughly before submitting your application.