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Objectives: To summarise the rationale, workflow and recommendations for the conduct of exposure assessment critiques in key human studies evaluated for International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards., Methods: Approaches to evaluating exposure assessment quality in human cancer and mechanistic studies were reviewed according to the precepts outlined in the IARC Monographs Preamble, using two agents as case studies. Exposure assessment 'domains', that is, salient aspects of exposure assessment for the agent under evaluation, were selected for review across the key human studies., Results: The case studies of night shift work (volume 124) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (volume 130) used a common approach, tailored to the agents' specific exposure scenarios, to evaluate exposure assessment quality. Based on the experiences of IARC Working Groups to date, the implementation of exposure assessment critique requires the need for agent-specific knowledge, consideration of the validity of time-varying exposure metrics related to duration and intensity, and transparent, concise reviews that prioritise the most important strengths and limitations of exposure assessment methods used in human studies., Conclusions: Exposure assessment has not historically been a fully appreciated component for evaluating the quality of epidemiological studies in cancer hazard identification. Exposure assessment critique in key human cancer and mechanistic studies is now an integral part of IARC Monographs evaluations and its conduct will continue to evolve as new agents are evaluated. The approaches identified here should be considered as a potential framework by others when evaluating the exposure assessment component of epidemiological studies for systematic reviews., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Altered lipid metabolism is a hallmark of cancer development. However, the role of specific lipid metabolites in colorectal cancer development is uncertain., Methods: In a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), we examined associations between pre-diagnostic circulating concentrations of 97 lipid metabolites (acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids) and colorectal cancer risk. Circulating lipids were measured using targeted mass spectrometry in 1591 incident colorectal cancer cases (55% women) and 1591 matched controls. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between concentrations of individual lipid metabolites and metabolite patterns with colorectal cancer risk., Findings: Of the 97 assayed lipids, 24 were inversely associated (nominally p < 0.05) with colorectal cancer risk. Hydroxysphingomyelin (SM (OH)) C22:2 (OR per doubling 0.60, 95% CI 0.47-0.77) and acylakyl-phosphatidylcholine (PC ae) C34:3 (OR per doubling 0.71, 95% CI 0.59-0.87) remained associated after multiple comparisons correction. These associations were unaltered after excluding the first 5 years of follow-up after blood collection and were consistent according to sex, age at diagnosis, BMI, and colorectal subsite. Two lipid patterns, one including 26 phosphatidylcholines and all sphingolipids, and another 30 phosphatidylcholines, were weakly inversely associated with colorectal cancer., Interpretation: Elevated pre-diagnostic circulating levels of SM (OH) C22:2 and PC ae C34:3 and lipid patterns including phosphatidylcholines and sphingolipids were associated with lower colorectal cancer risk. This study may provide insight into potential links between specific lipids and colorectal cancer development. Additional prospective studies are needed to validate the observed associations., Funding: World Cancer Research Fund (reference: 2013/1002); European Commission (FP7: BBMRI-LPC; reference: 313010)., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests None declared., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: We performed a meta-analysis of epidemiological results for the association between occupational exposure as a firefighter and cancer as part of the broader evidence synthesis work of the IARC Monographs program., Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify cohort studies of firefighters followed for cancer incidence and mortality. Studies were evaluated for the influence of key biases on results. Random-effects meta-analysis models were used to estimate the association between ever-employment and duration of employment as a firefighter and risk of 12 selected cancers. The impact of bias was explored in sensitivity analyses., Results: Among the 16 included cancer incidence studies, the estimated meta-rate ratio, 95% confidence interval (CI), and heterogeneity statistic (I 2 ) for ever-employment as a career firefighter compared mostly to general populations were 1.58 (1.14-2.20, 8%) for mesothelioma, 1.16 (1.08-1.26, 0%) for bladder cancer, 1.21 (1.12-1.32, 81%) for prostate cancer, 1.37 (1.03-1.82, 56%) for testicular cancer, 1.19 (1.07-1.32, 37%) for colon cancer, 1.36 (1.15-1.62, 83%) for melanoma, 1.12 (1.01-1.25, 0%) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 1.28 (1.02-1.61, 40%) for thyroid cancer, and 1.09 (0.92-1.29, 55%) for kidney cancer. Ever-employment as a firefighter was not positively associated with lung, nervous system, or stomach cancer. Results for mesothelioma and bladder cancer exhibited low heterogeneity and were largely robust across sensitivity analyses., Conclusions: There is epidemiological evidence to support a causal relationship between occupational exposure as a firefighter and certain cancers. Challenges persist in the body of evidence related to the quality of exposure assessment, confounding, and medical surveillance bias., Competing Interests: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this work. All authors declare that they have no financial or professional interest that would constitute a conflict of interest for the scientific integrity or the interpretation of any data related to this research. This includes employment and consulting activities, individual and institutional research support, and other financial or non-financial interests (e.g., public statements and positions related to the subject of the research)., (© 2023 Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute.)

This study examines the occurrence of the artificial sweetener aspartame (E951) in foods and beverages sampled by food control authorities in Germany between 2000 and 2022. The dataset was obtained through the Consumer Information Act. Out of 53,116 samples analyzed, aspartame was present in 7331 samples (14%), of which 5703 samples (11%) in nine major food groups were further evaluated. The results showed that aspartame was most commonly found in powdered drink bases (84%), flavored milk drinks (78%), chewing gum (77%), and diet soft drinks (72%). In the solid food groups, the highest mean aspartame content was detected in chewing gum (1543 mg/kg, n = 241), followed by sports foods (1453 mg/kg, n = 125), fiber supplements (1248 mg/kg, n = 11), powdered drink bases (1068 mg/kg, n = 162), and candies (437 mg/kg, n = 339). Liquid products generally had the highest aspartame content in diet soft drinks (91 mg/L, n = 2021), followed by regular soft drinks (59 mg/L, n = 574), flavored milk drinks (48 mg/kg, n = 207), and mixed beer drinks (24 mg/L, n = 40). These results suggest that aspartame is commonly used in some foods and beverages in Germany. The levels of aspartame found were generally within the legal limits set by the European Union. These findings provide the first comprehensive overview of aspartame in the German food market and may be particularly useful in informing the forthcoming working groups of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the WHO/FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which are in the process of evaluating the human health hazards and risks associated with the consumption of aspartame.

Under the current EU chemicals legislation, in vitro test methods became the preferred methods to identify and classify the skin irritation potential of chemicals and mixtures. Among these, especially in vitro skin models are widely used. For surfactants, a well-known group of typically irritating chemicals, it is a long-standing experience that the irritation potential of a mixture of surfactants is typically lower than the irritation potential of the single surfactants, an effect usually described as surfactant antagonism. In order to evaluate if this effect can be observed in skin model systems as well, the irritation potential of the surfactants and of their mixtures was determined in the Open Source Reconstructed Epidermis (OS-REp) models. Combinations of sodium dodecyl sulfate or linear alkylbenzene sulfonate with cocoamidopropyl betain and alkyl polyglycosid, respectively, resulted in a clear decrease of the irritation potential compared to the irritation exerted by the single surfactants. The effect appeared to be primarily driven by the mixture's lower ability to damage the skin model's barrier, as shown by a reduced fluorescein permeation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Amino acid metabolism is dysregulated in colorectal cancer patients; however, it is not clear whether pre-diagnostic levels of amino acids are associated with subsequent risk of colorectal cancer. We investigated circulating levels of amino acids in relation to colorectal cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and UK Biobank cohorts., Methods: Concentrations of 13-21 amino acids were determined in baseline fasting plasma or serum samples in 654 incident colorectal cancer cases and 654 matched controls in EPIC. Amino acids associated with colorectal cancer risk following adjustment for the false discovery rate (FDR) were then tested for associations in the UK Biobank, for which measurements of 9 amino acids were available in 111,323 participants, of which 1221 were incident colorectal cancer cases., Results: Histidine levels were inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk in EPIC (odds ratio [OR] 0.80 per standard deviation [SD], 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.69-0.92, FDR P-value=0.03) and in UK Biobank (HR 0.93 per SD, 95% CI 0.87-0.99, P-value=0.03). Glutamine levels were borderline inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk in EPIC (OR 0.85 per SD, 95% CI 0.75-0.97, FDR P-value=0.08) and similarly in UK Biobank (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.89-1.01, P=0.09) In both cohorts, associations changed only minimally when cases diagnosed within 2 or 5 years of follow-up were excluded., Conclusions: Higher circulating levels of histidine were associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer in two large prospective cohorts. Further research to ascertain the role of histidine metabolism and potentially that of glutamine in colorectal cancer development is warranted., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated an association between the degree of food processing in our diet and the risk of various chronic diseases. Much of this evidence is based on the international Nova classification system, which classifies food into four groups based on the type of processing: (1) Unprocessed and minimally processed foods, (2) Processed culinary ingredients, (3) Processed foods, and (4) "Ultra-processed" foods (UPF). The ability of the Nova classification to accurately characterise the degree of food processing across consumption patterns in various European populations has not been investigated so far. Therefore, we applied the Nova coding to data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) in order to characterize the degree of food processing in our diet across European populations with diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and to validate this Nova classification through comparison with objective biomarker measurements., Methods: After grouping foods in the EPIC dataset according to the Nova classification, a total of 476,768 participants in the EPIC cohort (71.5% women; mean age 51 [standard deviation (SD) 9.93]; median age 52 [percentile (p)25-p75: 58-66] years) were included in the cross-sectional analysis that characterised consumption patterns based on the Nova classification. The consumption of food products classified as different Nova categories were compared to relevant circulating biomarkers denoting food processing, measured in various subsamples (N between 417 and 9,460) within the EPIC cohort via (partial) correlation analyses (unadjusted and adjusted by sex, age, BMI and country). These biomarkers included an industrial transfatty acid (ITFA) isomer (elaidic acid; exogenous fatty acid generated during oil hydrogenation and heating) and urinary 4 - methyl syringol sulfate (an indicator for the consumption of smoked food and a component of liquid smoke used in UPF)., Results: Contributions of UPF intake to the overall diet in % grams/day varied across countries from 7% (France) to 23% (Norway) and their contributions to overall % energy intake from 16% (Spain and Italy) to >45% (in the UK and Norway). Differences were also found between sociodemographic groups; participants in the highest fourth of UPF consumption tended to be younger, taller, less educated, current smokers, more physically active, have a higher reported intake of energy and lower reported intake of alcohol. The UPF pattern as defined based on the Nova classification (group 4;% kcal/day) was positively associated with blood levels of industrial elaidic acid ( r = 0.54) and 4 - methyl syringol sulfate ( r = 0.43). Associations for the other 3 Nova groups with these food processing biomarkers were either inverse or non-significant (e.g., for unprocessed and minimally processed foods these correlations were -0.07 and -0.37 for elaidic acid and 4 - methyl syringol sulfate, respectively)., Conclusion: These results, based on a large pan-European cohort, demonstrate sociodemographic and geographical differences in the consumption of UPF. Furthermore, these results suggest that the Nova classification can accurately capture consumption of UPF, reflected by stronger correlations with circulating levels of industrial elaidic acid and a syringol metabolite compared to diets high in minimally processed foods., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huybrechts, Rauber, Nicolas, Casagrande, Kliemann, Wedekind, Biessy, Scalbert, Touvier, Aleksandrova, Jakszyn, Skeie, Bajracharya, Boer, Borné, Chajes, Dahm, Dansero, Guevara, Heath, Ibsen, Papier, Katzke, Kyrø, Masala, Molina-Montes, Robinson, Santiuste de Pablos, Schulze, Simeon, Sonestedt, Tjønneland, Tumino, van der Schouw, Verschuren, Vozar, Winkvist, Gunter, Monteiro, Millett and Levy.)

Background: Self-reported meat consumption is associated with disease risk but objective assessment of different dimensions of this heterogeneous dietary exposure in observational and interventional studies remains challenging., Objectives: We aimed to derive and validate scores based on plasma metabolites for types of meat consumption. For the most predictive score, we aimed to test whether the included metabolites varied with change in meat consumption, and whether the score was associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and other noncommunicable diseases., Methods: We derived scores based on 781 plasma metabolites for red meat, processed meat, and poultry consumption assessed with 7-d food records among 11,432 participants in the EPIC-Norfolk (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk) cohort. The scores were then tested for internal validity in an independent subset (n = 853) of the same cohort. In focused analysis on the red meat metabolite score, we examined whether the metabolites constituting the score were also associated with meat intake in a randomized crossover dietary intervention trial of meat (n = 12, Lyon, France). In the EPIC-Norfolk study, we assessed the association of the red meat metabolite score with T2D incidence (n = 1478) and other health endpoints., Results: The best-performing score was for red meat, comprising 139 metabolites which accounted for 17% of the explained variance of red meat consumption in the validation set. In the intervention, 11 top-ranked metabolites in the red meat metabolite score increased significantly after red meat consumption. In the EPIC-Norfolk study, the red meat metabolite score was associated with T2D incidence (adjusted HR per SD: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.24)., Conclusions: The red meat metabolite score derived and validated in this study contains metabolites directly derived from meat consumption and is associated with T2D risk. These findings suggest the potential for objective assessment of dietary components and their application for understanding diet-disease associations.The trial in Lyon, France, was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03354130., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition.)

Background & Aims: Circulating levels of acylcarnitines (ACs) have been associated with the risk of various diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes. Diet and lifestyle factors have been shown to influence AC concentrations but a better understanding of their biological, lifestyle and metabolic determinants is needed., Methods: Circulating ACs were measured in blood by targeted (15 ACs) and untargeted metabolomics (50 ACs) in 7770 and 395 healthy participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), respectively. Associations with biological and lifestyle characteristics, dietary patterns, self-reported intake of individual foods, estimated intake of carnitine and fatty acids, and fatty acids in plasma phospholipid fraction and amino acids in blood were assessed., Results: Age, sex and fasting status were associated with the largest proportion of AC variability (partial-r up to 0.19, 0.18 and 0.16, respectively). Some AC species of medium or long-chain fatty acid moiety were associated with the corresponding fatty acids in plasma (partial-r = 0.24) or with intake of specific foods such as dairy foods containing the same fatty acid. ACs of short-chain fatty acid moiety (propionylcarnitine and valerylcarnitine) were moderately associated with concentrations of branched-chain amino acids (partial-r = 0.5). Intake of most other foods and of carnitine showed little association with AC levels., Conclusions: Our results show that determinants of ACs in blood vary according to their fatty acid moiety, and that their concentrations are related to age, sex, diet, and fasting status. Knowledge on their potential determinants may help interpret associations of ACs with disease risk and inform on potential dietary and lifestyle factors that might be modified for disease prevention., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest All authors have declared no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Scope: Processed meat intake has been associated with adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about the type of processed meat more particularly responsible for these effects. This study aims to identify novel biomarkers for processed meat intake., Methods and Results: In a controlled randomized cross-over dietary intervention study, 12 healthy volunteers consume different processed and non-processed meats for 3 consecutive days each. Metabolomics analyses are applied on post-intervention fasting blood and urine samples to identify discriminating molecular features of processed meat intake. Nine and five pepper alkaloid metabolites, including piperine, are identified as major discriminants of salami intake in urine and plasma, respectively. The associations with processed meat intake are tested for replication in a cross-sectional study (n = 418) embedded within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Three of the serum metabolites including piperine are associated with habitual intake of sausages and to a lesser extent of total processed meat., Conclusion: Pepper alkaloids are major discriminants of intake for sausages that contain high levels of pepper used as ingredient. Further work is needed to assess if pepper alkaloids in combination with other metabolites may serve as biomarkers of processed meat intake., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Acylcarnitines (ACs) play a major role in fatty acid metabolism and are potential markers of metabolic dysfunction with higher blood concentrations reported in obese and diabetic individuals. Diet, and in particular red and processed meat intake, has been shown to influence AC concentrations but data on the effect of meat consumption on AC concentrations is limited., Objectives: To investigate the effect of red and processed meat intake on AC concentrations in plasma and urine using a randomized controlled trial with replication in an observational cohort., Methods: In the randomized crossover trial, 12 volunteers successively consumed 2 different diets containing either pork or tofu for 3 d each. A panel of 44 ACs including several oxidized ACs was analyzed by LC-MS in plasma and urine samples collected after the 3-d period. ACs that were associated with pork intake were then measured in urine (n = 474) and serum samples (n = 451) from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC) study and tested for associations with habitual red and processed meat intake derived from dietary questionnaires., Results: In urine samples from the intervention study, pork intake was positively associated with concentrations of 18 short- and medium-chain ACs. Eleven of these were also positively associated with habitual red and processed meat intake in the EPIC cross-sectional study. In blood, C18:0 was positively associated with red meat intake in both the intervention study (q = 0.004, Student's t-test) and the cross-sectional study (q = 0.033, linear regression)., Conclusions: AC concentrations in urine and blood were associated with red meat intake in both a highly controlled intervention study and in subjects of a cross-sectional study. Our data on the role of meat intake on this important pathway of fatty acid and energy metabolism may help understanding the role of red meat consumption in the etiology of some chronic diseases. This trial was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03354130., (Copyright © The Author(s) on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition 2020.)

The intake of processed meat has been associated with several adverse health outcomes such as type II diabetes and cancer; however, the mechanisms are not fully understood. A better knowledge of the metabolite profiles of different processed and non-processed meat products from this heterogeneous food group could help in elucidating the mechanisms associated with these health effects. Thirty-three different commercial samples of ten processed and non-processed meat products were digested in triplicate with a standardized static in vitro digestion method in order to mimic profiles of small molecules formed in the gut upon digestion. A metabolomics approach based on high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to identify metabolite profiles specific to the various meat products. Processed meat products showed metabolite profiles clearly distinct from those of non-processed meat. Several discriminant features related to either specific ingredients or processing methods were identified. Those were, in particular, syringol compounds deposited in meat during smoking, biogenic amines formed during meat fermentation and piperine and related compounds characteristic of pepper used as an ingredient. These metabolites, characteristic of specific processed meat products, might be used as potential biomarkers of intake for these foods. They may also help in understanding the mechanisms linking processed meat intake and adverse health outcomes such as cancer.

Background: Processed meat intake is associated with a higher risk of colorectal and stomach cancers, coronary artery disease, and type 2 diabetes and with higher mortality, but the estimation of intake of different processed meat products in this heterogeneous food group in epidemiological studies remains challenging., Objective: This work aimed at identifying novel biomarkers for processed meat intake using metabolomics., Methods: An untargeted, multi-tiered metabolomics approach based on LC-MS was applied to 33 meat products digested in vitro and secondly to urine and plasma samples from a randomized crossover dietary intervention in which 12 volunteers consumed successively 3 processed meat products (bacon, salami, and hot dog) and 2 other foods used as controls, over 3 consecutive days. The putative biomarkers were then measured in urine from 474 subjects from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cross-sectional study for which detailed 24-h dietary recalls and FFQs were available., Results: Syringol and 4 derivatives of syringol were found to be characteristic of in vitro digests of smoked meat products. The same compounds present as sulfate esters in urine increased at 2 and 12 h after consumption of smoked meat products (hot dog, bacon) in the intervention study. The same syringol sulfates were also positively associated with recent or habitual consumption of smoked meat products in urine samples from participants of the EPIC cross-sectional study. These compounds showed good discriminative ability for smoked meat intake with receiver operator characteristic areas under the curve ranging from 0.78 to 0.86 and 0.74 to 0.79 for short-term and habitual intake, respectively., Conclusions: Four novel syringol sulfates were identified as potential biomarkers of smoked meat intake and may be used to improve assessment of smoked meat intake in epidemiological studies. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03354130., (Copyright © American Society for Nutrition 2019.)

Coffee drinking has been associated with a lower risk of certain chronic diseases and overall mortality. Its effects on disease risk may vary according to the type of coffee brew consumed and its chemical composition. We characterized variations in the chemical profiles of 76 coffee brew samples representing different brew methods, roast levels, bean species, and caffeine types, either prepared or purchased from outlets in Rockville, Maryland, United States of America. Samples were profiled using liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry, and the main sources of chemical variability identified by the principal component partial R-square multivariable regression were found to be brew methods (R partial ² = 36%). A principal component analysis (PCA) was run on 18 identified coffee compounds after normalization for total signal intensity. The three first principal components were driven by roasting intensity (41% variance), type of coffee beans (29%), and caffeine (8%). These variations were mainly explained by hydroxycinnamoyl esters and diketopiperazines (roasting), N-caffeoyltryptophan, N- p- coumaroyltryptophan, feruloylquinic acids, and theophylline (coffee bean variety) and theobromine (decaffeination). Instant coffees differed from all coffee brews by high contents of diketopiperazines, suggesting a higher roast of the extracted beans. These variations will be important to consider for understanding the effects of different coffee brews on disease risk.

Exposome-Explorer (http://exposome-explorer.iarc.fr) is the first database dedicated to biomarkers of exposure to environmental risk factors. It contains detailed information on the nature of biomarkers, their concentrations in various human biospecimens, the study population where measured and the analytical techniques used for measurement. It also contains correlations with external exposure measurements and data on biological reproducibility over time. The data in Exposome-Explorer was manually collected from peer-reviewed publications and organized to make it easily accessible through a web interface for in-depth analyses. The database and the web interface were developed using the Ruby on Rails framework. A total of 480 publications were analyzed and 10 510 concentration values in blood, urine and other biospecimens for 692 dietary and pollutant biomarkers were collected. Over 8000 correlation values between dietary biomarker levels and food intake as well as 536 values of biological reproducibility over time were also compiled. Exposome-Explorer makes it easy to compare the performance between biomarkers and their fields of application. It should be particularly useful for epidemiologists and clinicians wishing to select panels of biomarkers that can be used in biomonitoring studies or in exposome-wide association studies, thereby allowing them to better understand the etiology of chronic diseases., (© The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)

A novel synthetic route was developed for the construction of isoxazolin-5-one glucosides using a cascade reaction. An X-ray crystal structure analysis of a isoxazolin-5-one glucoside confirmed the structure and stereochemistry of the heterocycle. The properties of the α- and β-anomers of the isoxazolin-5-one glucosides were compared. The first synthesis of 2-[6'-(3″-nitropropanoyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl]-3-isoxazolin-5-one was realized by direct enzymatic esterification without need of further protective groups.

This is a report on first results of a research project which tries to develop statements concerning the transferability of the concept of normalization as a basis of the care for the mentally handicapped from the Scandinavian into the German context. The intercultural comparative study is chosen as the appropriate method. This is done on the basis of a socio-political comparison of the situation and practice of public services in both countries, as well as on the basis of a comparison of selected service regions. In this paper we do report on results on that socio-political comparison. There is a difference between the comparison of structural characteristics of social systems, the comparison of socio-political measures and the comparison of social tendencies and problems which have effects on the situation of the mentally retarded. In the centre of this statement is a nearby aspect of the structures' comparison, that is the comparison of the objects of public care for the mentally handicapped in Denmark and the FRG. These aims are defined within the specific arguments for legislative standardisations. In Denmark this aim is paraphrased by the term "normalization", which means to arrange the life of a handicapped as normal as possible. In Germany there is an alignment about the objective "rehabilitation", which is formulated most comprehensively as the integration of the handicapped into work, profession and society. An analysis of the normative contents shows a close conformity in the conceptions of the aims. In contrast to this we find practically basic organisational and structural differences in the systems of public services which in essence are connected with the different social systems of both countries and the different development of reform processes in this subject.