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O desequilíbrio na gestão de recursos destinados ao saneamento básico no Brasil tem influência direta sobre o tratamento e distribuição de água para a população, o que incentiva a busca pelo desenvolvimento de tecnologias que tornem tais processos mais acessíveis. A eletrólise surge como alternativa que provê a geração in loco de agentes passíveis de serem utilizados na etapa de desinfecção de água para abastecimento público descentralizado. O uso de desinfecção por eletrólise em comunidades não abastecidas por redes de distribuição de água é uma solução conveniente para a problemática. O objetivo do presente estudo se deu por avaliar o uso de eletrólise de salmoura para produção de solução clorada concentrada, por meio do desenvolvimento de um reator eletrolítico de fluxo contínuo, em escala de bancada com eletrodos de aço inoxidável. A partir de um planejamento fatorial, variou-se a corrente elétrica, tempo de contato e concentração de NaCl na salmoura pré eletrólise, sob diferentes níveis. Cada arranjo gerou uma solução clorada específica. Foram realizadas estimativas do potencial de tratamento de cada solução gerada, e, com auxílio do método AHP de apoio à decisão, foi possível concluir que a dosagem de 30 g/L de NaCl, tempo de contato de 33 minutos e corrente elétrica aplicada de 5 Ampère, correspondeu à melhor condição de operação. Assim, o sistema de desinfecção proposto pode ser indicado para aplicação em escala real de desinfecção de água de consumo para populações descentralizadas.

The growing world population and increased pressure on agricultural resources are driving a shortage of dietary protein sources. As a result, industry is developing more sustainable novel food protein sources such as insects, algae and duckweed and using new processing techniques. Consumer exposure to these novel or processed proteins, could cause new food allergies, exacerbating a public health issue which is already directly affecting an estimated 20 million Europeans. Introduction of novel foods should not add to the burden of food allergy and this calls for a reliable, harmonised, evidence-based and validated allergenicity risk assessment strategy. The COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action ImpARAS (Improved Allergenicity Risk Assessment Strategy), a four-year networking project, identified gaps in current allergy risk assessment, and proposed new ideas and plans for improving it. Here, we report on the lessons learned from the ImpARAS network and suggestions for future research. The safe introduction of novel and more sustainable food protein sources, while protecting humans from food allergy, calls for a multidisciplinary approach based on an improved understanding of what determines the relative allergenic potency of proteins, novel testing and assessment methodologies, harmonized decision-making criteria, and a clear ranking approach to express the allergenicity of novel product relative to that of existing known allergenic proteins: (from 'non'/to weakly and to strongly allergenic proteins). © 2020 The Author(s).

Increased interest in toxicological modes of action and a desire to develop mechanistically-based assays for improved characterization of toxic hazards has fueled interest in the OECD Adverse Outcome Pathway program. This program outlines and models AOPs to support the development of new regulatory tools for toxicology. One endpoint of particular regulatory interest is chemical sensitization of the respiratory tract, or chemical respiratory allergy. An expert group was formed to define an AOP for this endpoint. The group first aimed to identify commonalities and differences between chemical sensitization of the respiratory tract and skin sensitization resulting in allergic contact dermatitis. Important differences may include differential selectivity of protein binding, dendritic cell interactions, and the quality of immune responses associated with the acquisition of sensitization. However, experimental evidence confirming some of these differences may not always be available. Furthermore, determining the kinds of evidence to include in an AOP can be challenging. For example, should this AOP include relevant evidence from work with biological allergens, such as proteins? This presentation will give an overview of the AOP and discuss some challenges faced in its construction.

This study describes the international ring trial of the epidermal-equivalent (EE) sensitizer potency assay. This assay does not distinguish a sensitizer from a non-sensitizer, but may classify known skin sensitizers according to their potency. It assesses the chemical concentration resulting in 50% cytotoxicity (EE-EC50) or the 2-fold increase in IL-1(IL-12x). Four laboratories received 13 coded sensitizers. Reproducible results were obtained in each laboratory. A binary prediction model, EC50 ≥ 7 mg/ml = weak to moderate sensitizer and EC50 < 7 mg/ml = strong to extreme sensitizer had an accuracy of 77%. A superior EE (EC50 and IL-12x) correlation was observed with human in vivo DSA05 data compared to LLNA-EC3 data. Human in vivo NOEL and LLNA-EC3 data correlated to a similar extent to in vitro EE data. Our results indicate that this easily transferable EE potency assay is suitable for testing chemical allergens of unknown potencies and may now be ready for further validation, providing complementary potency information to other assays already undergoing validation for assessing skin sensitization potential.

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