Approaching complexities in health and environment

The Health and Environment Network and its achievements

Authors: Alena Bartonova, Janna G Koppe, Aleksandra Fucic, Arno C Gutleb, Peter van den Hazel and Hans Keune

How can scientists bring research to use: the HENVINET experience

Health concerns have driven the European environmental policies of the last 25 years, with issues becoming more complex. Addressing these concerns requires an approach that is both interdisciplinary and engage...

Authors: Alena Bartonova

We’re only in it for the knowledge? A problem solving turn in environment and health expert elicitation

The FP6 EU HENVINET project aimed at synthesizing the scientific information available on a number of topics of high relevance to policy makers in environment and health. The goal of the current paper is to re...

Authors: Hans Keune, Arno C Gutleb, Karin E Zimmer, Solveig Ravnum, Aileen Yang, Alena Bartonova, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Erik Ropstad, Gunnar S Eriksen, Margaret Saunders, Brooke Magnanti and Bertil Forsberg

An expert assessment on climate change and health – with a European focus on lungs and allergies

For almost 20 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the potential health risks associated with climate change; with increasingly convincing evidence that climate change presen...

Authors: Bertil Forsberg, Lennart Bråbäck, Hans Keune, Mike Kobernus, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Aileen Yang and Alena Bartonova

Chlorpyrifos and neurodevelopmental effects: a literature review and expert elicitation on research and policy

Organophosphate pesticides are widely used on food crops grown in the EU. While they have been banned from indoor use in the US for a decade due to adverse health effects, they are still the most prevalent pes...

Authors: Margaret Saunders, Brooke L Magnanti, Sara Correia Carreira, Aileen Yang, Urinda Alamo-Hernández, Horacio Riojas-Rodriguez, Gemma Calamandrei, Janna G Koppe, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Hans Keune and Alena Bartonova

Policy relevant results from an expert elicitation on the health risks of phthalates

The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to support informed policy making by facilitating the availability of relevant knowledge on different environmental heal...

Authors: Karin Elisabeth Zimmer, Arno Christian Gutleb, Solveig Ravnum, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Albertinka J Murk, Erik Ropstad, Janneche Utne Skaare, Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, Jan Ludvig Lyche, Janna G Koppe, Brooke L Magnanti, Aileen Yang, Alena Bartonova and Hans Keune

Policy relevant Results from an Expert Elicitation on the Human Health Risks of Decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) and Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD)

Apply a recently developed expert elicitation procedure to evaluate the state of the current knowledge of the two brominated flame retardants (BFRs) most commonly used today; decabromo-diphenyl ether (decaBDE)...

Authors: Solveig Ravnum, Karin E Zimmer, Hans Keune, Arno C Gutleb, Albertinka J Murk, Janna G Koppe, Brooke Magnanti, Jan L Lyche, Gunnar S Eriksen, Erik Ropstad, Janneche U Skaare, Michael Kobernus, Aileen Yang, Alena Bartonova and Martin Krayer von Krauss

Environmental exposure to xenoestrogens and oestrogen related cancers: reproductive system, breast, lung, kidney, pancreas, and brain

The role of steroids in carcinogenesis has become a major concern in environmental protection, biomonitoring, and clinical research. Although historically oestrogen has been related to development of reproduct...

Authors: Aleksandra Fucic, Marija Gamulin, Zeljko Ferencic, Jelena Katic, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Alena Bartonova and Domenico F Merlo

Cancer risk and the complexity of the interactions between environmental and host factors: HENVINET interactive diagrams as simple tools for exploring and understanding the scientific evidence

Development of graphical/visual presentations of cancer etiology caused by environmental stressors is a process that requires combining the complex biological interactions between xenobiotics in living and occ...

Authors: Domenico F Merlo, Rosangela Filiberti, Michael Kobernus, Alena Bartonova, Marija Gamulin, Zeljko Ferencic, Maria Dusinska and Aleksandra Fucic

Thyroid hormone metabolism and environmental chemical exposure

Polychlorinated dioxins and –furans (PCDD/Fs) and polychlorinated-biphenyls (PCBs) are environmental toxicants that have been proven to influence thyroid metabolism both in animal studies and in human beings. ...

Authors: Marike M Leijs, Gavin W ten Tusscher, Kees Olie, Tom van Teunenbroek, Wim MC van Aalderen, Pim de Voogt, Tom Vulsma, Alena Bartonova, Martin Krayer von Krauss, Claudia Mosoiu, Horacio Riojas-Rodriguez, Gemma Calamandrei and Janna G Koppe

Bladder cancer, a review of the environmental risk factors

Many epidemiological studies and reviews have been performed to identify the causes of bladder cancer. The aim of this review is to investigate the links between various environmental risk factors and cancer o...

Authors: Silvia Letašiová, Alžbeta Medveďová, Andrea Šovčíková, Mária Dušinská, Katarína Volkovová, Claudia Mosoiu and Alena Bartonová

Associations between environmental factors and incidence of cutaneous melanoma. Review

Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most serious skin cancers. It is caused by neural crest-derived melanocytes - pigmented cells normally present in the epidermis and, sometimes, in the dermis.

Authors: Katarina Volkovova, Dagmar Bilanicova, Alena Bartonova, Silvia Letašiová and Maria Dusinska

Nanoparticles in the environment: assessment using the causal diagram approach

Nanoparticles (NPs) cause concern for health and safety as their impact on the environment and humans is not known. Relatively few studies have investigated the toxicological and environmental effects of expos...

Authors: Suchi Smita, Shailendra K Gupta, Alena Bartonova, Maria Dusinska, Arno C Gutleb and Qamar Rahman

A healthy turn in urban climate change policies; European city workshop proposes health indicators as policy integrators

The EU FP6 HENVINET project reviewed the potential relevance of a focus on climate change related health effects for climate change policies at the city region level. This was undertaken by means of a workshop...

Authors: Hans Keune, David Ludlow, Peter van den Hazel, Scott Randall and Alena Bartonova

The challenge of social networking in the field of environment and health

The fields of environment and health are both interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary, and until recently had little engagement in social networking designed to cross disciplinary boundaries. The EU FP6 proje...

Authors: Peter van den Hazel, Hans Keune, Scott Randall, Aileen Yang, David Ludlow and Alena Bartonova

Application of social media in the environment and health professional community

The purpose of the EU FP6 funded coordination action HENVINET was to create a permanent network of environment and health professionals. The main outcome is a networking portal (

Authors: Sonja Grossberndt, Peter van den Hazel and Alena Bartonova

Facilitating knowledge transfer: decision support tools in environment and health

The HENVINET Health and Environment Network aimed to enhance the use of scientific knowledge in environmental health for policy making. One of the goals was to identify and evaluate Decision Support Tools (DST...

Authors: Hai-Ying Liu, Alena Bartonova, Panagiotis Neofytou, Aileen Yang, Michael J Kobernus, Emanuele Negrenti and Christos Housiadas

Considering the cumulative risk of mixtures of chemicals – A challenge for policy makers

The current paradigm for the assessment of the health risk of chemical substances focuses primarily on the effects of individual substances for determining the doses of toxicological concern in order to inform...

Authors: Denis A Sarigiannis and Ute Hansen

Critical complexity in environmental health practice: simplify and complexify

The magic word ‘complexity’ has been buzzing around in science, policy and society for quite some time now. There seems to be a common feel for a ‘new way’ of doing things, for overcoming the limits of traditi...

Authors: Hans Keune