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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1536836
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Pathogens and Contaminants in the Environment: Human Health Risks, Exposure Pathways and Epidemiological Outcomes View all 3 articles

Unravelling the occupational exposure to mycotoxins in waste management setting: results from a case-study in Norway

Provisionally accepted
Carla Martins Carla Martins 1,2*Carla Viegas Carla Viegas 3,4Elke Eriksen Elke Eriksen 5Pål Graff Pål Graff 5Anani Komlavi Afanou Anani Komlavi Afanou 5Anne Straumfors Anne Straumfors 5Magdalena Twarużek Magdalena Twarużek 6Jan Grajewski Jan Grajewski 6Robert Kosicki Robert Kosicki 6Susana Viegas Susana Viegas 1,2
  • 1 National School of Public Health, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2 Comprehensive Health Research Center, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 3 Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa (ESTeSL), Lisboa, Portugal
  • 4 Health and Technology Research Center, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 5 National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 6 Faculty of Biological Sciences, Kazimierz Wielki University of Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz, Pomeranian, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Waste management represents an occupational setting where fungi are significant contaminants.This study aimed to assess the exposure of waste workers to mycotoxins through a human biomonitoring study. 33 workers and 19 controls collected spot urine samples to determine ten mycotoxins' urinary biomarkers by liquid chromatography with detection by mass spectrometry.Risk characterization was performed using hazard quotient and margin of exposure. Workers were exposed to 6/10 mycotoxins, with urine samples being positive for deoxynivalenol (91%, 30/33), ochratoxin A (33%, 11/33), zearalenone (17%, 5/33), a-zearalenol (12%, 4/33), β-zearalenol (12%, 4/33), and HT-2 toxin (3%, 1/33). Within controls and outwith controls were exposed to 5/10 and 2/10 mycotoxins, respectively. All participants presented hazard quotient for deoxynivalenol and zearalenone below one, meaning that the exposure does not represent a potential health concern. When considering the margin of exposure determined for ochratoxin A, 18% of the total participants presented results below 200 for non-neoplastic effects and 100% of total participants presented results below 10000 for neo-plastic effects, which may represent a potential health concern and requires further assessment. This study highlights future needs of research in this occupational context, requiring further studies to increase knowledge on occupational exposure to mycotoxins.

    Keywords: Mycotoxins, Occupational hygiene, Waste Management, human biomonitoring, exposure assessment

    Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Martins, Viegas, Eriksen, Graff, Afanou, Straumfors, Twarużek, Grajewski, Kosicki and Viegas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carla Martins, National School of Public Health, New University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

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