Dr. Lisa Connolly is a leading academic in Toxin Food Safety and an expert in the Bioassay Analysis of Endocrine Disruptors at the Institute for Global Food Security based in Queen’s University Belfast. Lisa explains how chemicals found in food and the environment could be endangering our health.
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals found in food that can affect our hormones and are linked to a host of health issues. These include cancer, infertility, obesity and diabetes. Dr. Lisa Connolly, an internationally recognised researcher, is leading the way in these studies. Having originally obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Ulster in 1994, Lisa went on to be awarded a Ph.D in Biological Sciences specialising in cancer research at Dublin City University. It was at this time that her interest began to pique in the area of endocrine disruptors. “I believe that many diseases today may originate from endocrine disrupting contaminants in our diet and environment. I firmly believe that we could prevent a lot of these diseases by improving our understanding and safety against the exposure of endocrine disruptors,” explains Lisa.
The team of researchers working on PROTECTED will try to identify new and emerging endocrine disruptors and understand the complex effects of their mixtures. The new information can then be used to inform food production legislation and protect the consumer. PROTECTED differs from previous research on endocrine disruptors. While most projects have focused solely on the effects of man-made chemicals on the endocrine system, Lisa and her team suspect that natural chemicals such as fungal toxins may be creating a mixture with man-made chemicals and the natural hormones in the body, causing adverse health issues.
Researchers working on this project will examine the effects of endocrine disruptors on cells, development and brain function, plus explore the links that these toxins may have with the rise in modern diseases.
The team will also work on developing effective communication strategies to the public. The social science aspect proves an ongoing challenge, so Lisa and her team will work closely to evaluate how much the consumer understands about endocrine disruptors.
“Once we know this, we can start developing tools by which we can explain the true risk of endocrine disruptors to the consumer, what they should be concerned about and how they could avoid them.”
Traditionally, legislation has protected the consumer from individual compounds, but legislation hasn’t always taken into account that on a daily basis we can be exposed to many different types of chemicals. We suspect that they may form mixtures in our body together with our own natural hormones, increasing the risk to our health. Legislation needs to consider the risk posed by mixtures of both man-made and natural endocrine disruptors. We hope to help this process through knowledge gained in the PROTECTED project.
While legislation is currently controlling the introduction of chemicals to our food chain, the processes used to produce food is continually changing, meaning new risks.
“We need a new generation of experts who can tackle this global problem and come up with innovative ways and strategies to control these threats and protect our health now and in the future.
“Human health will be our main focus over the coming months. An added advantage of hosting this project internationally is that the results will be different in each country due to differing factors like climate, the natural environment and temperature. We’re looking at chemicals that can gain entry into the environment, water resources, soil and food chain and how these can affect the health of the consumer. We are ultimately developing a new generation of researchers with the innovative capabilities of producing research tools to tackle this ongoing problem now and in the future.”
Having just launched the PROTECTED project, Lisa acknowledges that a collaborative effort is required to protect the public: “The overall difficulty is that it’s very hard to individually warn a consumer on what they can do. So I think we need a combination of consumer practice, scientific research and informed legislation to control the overall problem.
“In four years time, we hope to have produced an army of innovative and expert world leaders in the area of protecting the consumer against endocrine disruptors.”
PROTECTED has received its funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration.
For further information please see the PROTECTED project website on: Protected.eu.com
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