This is the question that Assistant Professor Maria Wielsøe seeks to answer together with her colleagues in their public health research on environmental toxins and chemical substances, some of which can be endocrine disruptors.

According to Maria Wielsøe, we are all exposed daily to a mix of natural and synthetic chemicals. She believes that consumers should be able to feel safe with the products they buy in supermarkets, and she wants to contribute to better risk assessments of chemical substances so those posing a long-term health risk can be regulated.

"I investigate how chemical substances and environmental toxins that we are exposed to in our daily lives affect our health. My focus is especially on cellular mechanisms and chemical mixtures."

"We need to understand how the substances interact with each other to avoid negative impacts on our health."

Maria Wielsøe's research field includes exposure to and effects of endocrine-disrupting substances such as perfluorinated substances (PFAS) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). She examines how actual mixtures of substances in the blood affect hormone receptors in cells. This is done by extracting mixtures of substances from blood and tissue, investigating their endocrine-disrupting effects in cell experiments in the lab, and then relating these findings to outcomes such as breast cancer and low birth weight.

Maria Wielsøe and her colleagues have studied the Greenlandic population, which generally has high concentrations of environmental toxins in their blood due to local environmental conditions and a traditional diet, which largely consists of marine mammals high in the food chain, like seals.

"I have, together with colleagues, examined how environmental toxins in the blood and the actual mixtures of chemical substances in the blood affect the risk of breast cancer, fetal growth, and children's development."

When exposed to multiple chemicals simultaneously, the substances can interact by amplifying or weakening each other's effects (the cocktail effect). This changes the toxicity of the substances, meaning that the combined effect can be different from the effects of individual substances.

"We need to understand how the substances interact with each other to avoid negative impacts on our health."

Maria Wielsøe states that her field of research is evolving, and that new methods and models are needed to determine the effects of the substance mixtures we are currently exposed to, as well as to predict effects when new substances are added to existing mixtures.

"My work at the Department of Public Health is highly meaningful because it has direct relevance to the health of the population and our society in general."

She hopes that her research results can contribute to a better understanding of the effects of chemical mixtures and thereby aid regulations and policies to protect public health.

Maria Wielsøe's research area: Disease Etiology and Research Methodology