Combination effects of pesticides on birth weight and metabolic programming in rat offspring

Risk assessment of pesticides is generally based on the no observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs) for single compounds. However, humans are typically exposed to a mixture of several pesticides. The objectives of the project were to investigate whether a mixture of environmentally relevant pesticides cause decreased birth weights at dose levels below NOAELs for the individual pesticides in rats, to evaluate whether the mixture effect is best predicted by the independent action or the dose-addition model, to investigate the influences of developmental pesticide exposure on metabolic programming of the offspring using biomarkers for obesity and type 2 diabetes, and to give input for regulatory considerations.