Compreender os PFAS para proteger as pessoas e os bivalves: impacto, consequências e estratégias de mitigação

i) Comprehensive Assessment: acquire, for the first time, baseline concentration values of PFAS in water and bivalves from harvesting sites at the Ria de Aveiro and determine the physiological, biochemical, metabolomic and histopathological status of bivalves (winter and summer sampling, for 2 years) – Environmental Risk Assessment and Human Consumption Risk. The research will provide a holistic understanding of environmental threats and human consumption implications. ii) Improved Modelling: improve the performance of a previous Delft3D model implemented for Ria de Aveiro based on an optimized calibration and validation using collected field data and perform accurate forecasts of salinity and water temperature distribution under extreme events and climate change (CC) scenarios. The implementation of this model will allow the identification of potential changes in PFAS occurrence and distribution to define safer areas of bivalve harvesting/production. At the same time, this model will allow us to identify the most impacted areas by CC-related factors, generating greater impacts on bivalves. The model will also provide forecasts for laboratory experiments under realistic conditions. This approach ensures accurate forecasts, crucial for effective environmental management and adaptation strategies. iii) Species Sensitivity Ranking: evaluate the biological effects (physiological, biochemical, histopathological, and metabolomic) of legacy and emerging PFAS under laboratory conditions to rank species sensitivity and identify the most deleterious conditions under extreme events and predicted CC scenarios; identify early warning markers of impacts caused by selected PFAS under different CC scenario – Comparison between observed and predicted values (CA and IA models). Ranking species sensitivity and increasing our understanding of the ecological risks posed by PFAS are pivotal for targeted conservation efforts and pollution mitigation strategies. iv) Novel Mitigation Strategies: assess the capacity of EOs as an efficient strategy to protect bivalves due to their antioxidant properties, emphasizing their advantages over other substances (e.g. drugs) that often have negative effects on bivalves and human health. This novel approach contributes to safeguarding bivalve populations and represents an innovative direction in environmental protection strategies. v) Human Health Assessment: quantification of PFAS concentrations in human blood from the local population (with shellfish-rich diets) and, at the same time, identification of markers of human metabolomic deviations triggered by PFAs. This research will not only provide insights into the extent of human exposure to PFAS through shellfish consumption but also elucidate the potential health effects at a metabolomic level, enabling a deeper understanding of the relationship between environmental contamination and human health outcomes. Untargeted NMR metabolomics of human serum will unveil novel information on the impact of PFASs on human metabolism, providing candidate markers for monitoring and predicting PFASs exposure in humans. vi) Regulatory Frameworks: obtaining novel data will contribute to identifying specific guidelines for the international restriction of harmful substances and the definition of human safety levels for consumption; this will contribute to the registration processes of novel products and applications, assuming considerable significance for national and EU policymakers.