Lara Cioni

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her!  The doctoral thesis! Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne holdes kl. 10.15: «PFAS exposure and immune response in humans – what is the current evidence? ». Auditoriet er åpent for publikum, men vil også bli strømmet her/ The auditorium is open to the public. Prøveforelesningen strømmes her/ The defense will still be streamed here.  Disputasen starter 12.15 Direktelenke Disputas.The defense will be streamed here. Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn. / A recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours. De som ønsker å opponere ex auditorio kan sende e-post til leder av disputasen.  Opponents’ ex auditorio should sign up to leader of defense by e-mail to:kristin.benjaminsen.borch@uit.no

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen:

Every day, we are exposed to chemicals through air, food, water and products we use. In partircular, PFAS (a group of  >4700 organofluorine chemicals) are found in objects that we use eveyday (for example outdoor clothing) and have received international attention due to their presence in human blood worldwide and potential health effects. In this thesis we used different methods on human blood collected in the Tromsø Study to investigate how exposure to PFAS and other organofluorine chemicals in the Tromsø population has been changing between 1986-2015. The results show that in recent years the total organofluorine found in blood did not increase and PFAS concentrations have been declining (even if some individual PFAS are increasing). For the first time we measured PFAS precursors (chemicals that can be transformed to PFAS in our body) and found that they contributed little to organofluorine exposure. We also found that a significant part of the organofluorine in blood was explained by the presence of organofluorine pharmaceuticals. Lastly,  part of the organofluorine in blood could not be described but this unidentified portion decreased between 1986-2015.

Hovedveileder
Seniorforsker Dorte Herzke, miljøforskning og helse, NILU / Ass. Prof II ved UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Biveiledere
Professor Torkjel M. Sandanger, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Bedømmelseskomité
Førsteamanuensis Anna Kärrman, Örebro Universitet  - 1. opponent.
Professor Agneta Åkesson, Karolinska Institutet - 2. opponent.
Professor Anne-Sofie Furberg – leder av komité.

Disputasleder: Professor Kristin Benjaminsen Borch,  Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.