1. Departamento de Alimentação e Nutrição, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Lisboa, Portugal
2. Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
3. Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), Medicine of Woman, Childhood and Adolescence, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
4. Departamento de Epidemiologia, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Lisboa, Portugal
Comunicação em mesa redonda:
- International Conference of Food Contaminants ICFC 2021, Lisboa, 10-10-2021
Exposure to hazardous chemicals during first 1000 days of life has been linked to an increased risk of several health disorders. Early-life exposure to chemicals is an emerging research field that needs urgent clarification as a contribution to the exposome research. There is a growing awareness of the scientific community towards this topic; however, a doubt remains whether early-life exposure could be considered a real public health concern. To answer this question, two approaches were performed. A preliminary bibliographic search was conducted on published reviews and original articles at PubMed in 2021, including as key words “early-life exposure”, “food contaminants” and “public health”, for the last decade (2011-2021). In addition, the opinion of Public Health professionals was gathered through their representative, in order to discuss about the real concern of the professional health community towards early-life exposure to food contaminants. This preliminary approach revealed an increased number of papers reporting the role of non-nutritional components as contributors to the epidemic of metabolic disorders (MD), including obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D), with a special emphasis on food contaminants and social stress. Some reports provide evidence of a link between early-life adverse events (ELAE)-induced intestinal barrier disruption, inflammation, epigenetic modifications, and the occurrence of late MD. There is rising evidence of the negative effects of contaminants present in foodstuffs (such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, and mycotoxins) following exposure during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which should be considered a major public health issue. Exposure during early-life due to food ingestion of toxic chemicals seems to have a critical role on the rapid epidemiological rise of obesity as well as a trans-generational transmission of risk of later obesity. Convergent research in toxicology, epidemiology, and occupational medicine has documented children's unique sensitivities to chemical, nutritional, and psychosocial hazards during windows of vulnerability in early development and has shown that early-life exposures can produce disease and disability in childhood and across the life span.
Palavras Chave: early-life exposure, public health, food contaminants