This pillar aims to determine safety thresholds and health effects of microplastics in animals and humans.
Effects and tolerance limits
Pillar Leader: Alessio Gomiero, NORCE
Alessio Gomiero - is a Senior Researcher at NORCE and honorary associate researcher at CNR -IRBIM. His background is analytical chemistry, ecotoxicology, and environmental risk assessment. Since 2013, he has moved from the development of combined ecological-ecotoxicological and chemical oriented approaches assessing the oil and gas industry to the study of plastic pollution. He has contributed to the development of vibrational spectroscopy and thermo-analytical oriented analytical methods to characterize microplastics in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments as well as investigating the biological effects of microplastics on different model organisms. He is involved in several national and international research projects related to microplastic and is a member of expert groups in relation to marine pollution and plastic litter. He acts as NAMC scientific coordinator supporting the development of the Centre.
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Jutta Dierkes, University of Bergen
Jutta’s academic training was in human nutrition science, supplemented by training in clinical nutrition. Since 2010, I am professor for Clinical nutrition at the University of Bergen. One of my major interests are the health effects of seafood, both nutrients but also pollutants. First, fish is a major dietary source of vitamin D, and I have been interested in the health effects of vitamin D both in healthy populations and in patients with cardiovascular disease. However, seafood consumption is threatened by pollution, and I am especially interested in the pollution with micro- and nanoplastics. Is the pollution with microplastics a health threat for humans? We received funding from the University of Bergen for investigating this in a rat model, together with colleagues from environmental toxicology and the Institute of Marine Research.
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Matthew Cole, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Dr Matthew Cole is a senior marine ecologist and ecotoxicologist based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. His research centres upon how human activity and pollution can impact upon the natural environment. Since 2010, Matthew’s research has focussed upon better understanding the risks plastic pollution poses to marine ecosystems. His pioneering research was the first to identify the negative impact microplastics can have upon marine zooplankton and marine ecological processes. Matthew is currently spearheading projects investigating the effects of antifouling paint particles, biodegradable plastics and tyre-wear particles on coastal and estuarine ecosystems, and exploring nature based solutions to microplastic pollution.
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Anita Solhaug, Norwegian Veterinary Institute
Dr. Anita Solhaug is a senior Scientist at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. She is a toxicologist, with the main focus on cellular in vitro systems and natural toxins. She has long experience with both mammalian and fish cell cultures; establishment, characterisation and effect studies. She is currently leading the Gillmodel project (RCN), with the aim to characterize the new epithelial gill cell line (ASG-10) as an in vitro model system to study environmental stressors (including microplastics).
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Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, Norwegian Veterinary Institute
Dr. Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, is a Senior scientist at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI). With a PhD in animal science/toxicology from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He has a long experience food toxicology and has a special interest in characterising the modes-of-action of toxicological compounds in feed and food. He has been a long-term member of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and has been involved in risk assessments for European Food Safety Authority. He has also experience form the Norwegian Food Control Authority.
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Tânia Cristina Gomes, Norwegian Institute for Water Research
Dr. Gomes is a Key Researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research. She has over 15 years of experience in the area of ecotoxicology, focusing on the bioavailability and effects of emerging pollutants at different levels of biological organization, development of methods for investigating molecular- and mechanism-specific toxicity and regulatory testing. She is currently leading the MicroLEACH project on the long-term effects of plastics and additive chemicals on marine organisms, as well as leading WPs on the REVEAL and MicroOPT projects also looking at the bioavailability, accumulation and impacts of plastic particles in aquatic species. Within NAMC she will be involved on Pillar 4.
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Mark E Hahn, WHOI
Dr. Mark Hahn is a Senior Scientist in the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a Project Leader in the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health. He received his PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine. At WHOI since 1987, Dr. Hahn has studied molecular mechanisms of developmental toxicity and adaptation following exposure to marine pollutants and has authored roughly 175 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Hahn was on the organizing committee of the 2020 U.S. National Academy of Sciences workshop on the Environmental Health Effects of Microplastics and currently leads WHOI’s Marine Microplastics Initiative (https://microplastics.whoi.edu).
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Ștefania Piarulli, SINTEF
Stefania Piarulli is a marine biologist and ecologist specialized in the study of microplastics and their impact on marine ecosystems. As a Research Scientist in the Climate and Environment Department at SINTEF Ocean AS in Trondheim, Norway, Stefania focuses on uncovering the biological and ecological effects of microplastics and the chemicals they may release from single species to communities. Stefania has participated in multiple national and international projects, including JPIOcean PLASTOX, HMF-micro-OPT, and NFR-MicroLEACH where she had a key role in investigating the ingestion, accumulation, and effects of microplastics and associated pollutants on different marine compartments and organisms, providing critical insights into the transfer and differential impact of microplastics across the food web. In addition, Stefania is committed to collaborate with different marine industries (i.e. aquaculture, offshore wind) to co-create sustainable and safer alternative solutions to limit environmental microplastic release.
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