Hygienic aspects of the assessment of combined effect of chemical environmental factors on human health (literature review)

The study of combined effects of chemicals and their assessment is one among urgent issues of hygiene and preventive medicine. Chemicals with variable chemical composition that persist in environmental objects produce simultaneous effects on human health; given that, it is a challenge for researchers to assess combinations of chemicals with variable composition. To identify key areas of development and improve the methodology for addressing it, it is necessary to systematize knowledge as regards studying patterns and features of combined toxicity. This review presents the most significant, in terms of their science intensity and effectiveness, methodological approaches to the assessing effects produced by a mixture of chemicals, which have been developed over the past thirty years. This review focuses on data provided in Russian and foreign scientific literature sources, which are indexed in the search engines eLIBRARY, PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus and international scientific organizations and devoted to methods for assessing combined effects of chemicals (fifty four publications). In general, existing competency models for assessing combined toxicity of substances have reached a certain level of knowledge. At present, established interactions of substances (antagonism, synergism and its special cases – potentiation and emergence) tend to be more complex than simple summation; risks that cause adverse consequences of combined exposure are calculated; multivariate regression and neural network models are used to improve the quality, adequacy, and objectivity of assessment. However, despite the existing general scientific achievements in this area of ​​research, there is an urgent need for further development of methodological approaches to quantitative assessment of additional risk caused by combined effects. Expanding scientific foundations will allow further improving the methodology for hygienic regulation over levels of chemicals in their various combinations in environmental objects. This is critically important for updating the system of state regulation aimed at minimizing risks and health harm, as a key component of the Russian Federation sovereignty.

Contribution:
Zaitseva N.V. – study concept and editing;
Zemlyanova M.A. – study design, editing;
Koldibekova Yu.V., Teterina D.M. – collection and analysis of literary data, writing the text.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: February 7, 2025 / Revised: March 14, 2025 / Accepted: March 26, 2025 / Published: April 30, 2025

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