Inaugural Lecture: Professor Andreas Kortenkamp

Many European countries, including the United Kingdom, have experienced rises in male reproductive disorders. These manifest themselves as non-descended testes at birth, malformations of the penis and poor semen quality. These disorders go back to insufficient action of male sex hormones in foetal life. Many chemicals present as pollutants in our tissues have been shown to interfere with male sex hormone action and can therefore be suspected of contributing to these disorders.

 Nevertheless, no single chemical, at exposures currently experienced by the general population, can explain these disease trends. Could consideration of combined exposures provide an explanation? In this presentation, Professor Kortenkamp will summarise the efforts of dealing with this question from the perspective of mixture toxicology. This analysis exposes an explanation gap: renewed efforts are necessary to identify unknown pollutants with adverse hormonal properties. The implications of these findings for risk assessment and better health protection will be discussed.

 Light refreshments will follow the lecture.

 To reserve your place at the lecture, please email the Events Team or telephone 01895 266451, giving your name, organisation and email address. Please also indicate if you have any special dietary or access requirements.

 Arrival instructions will be sent out prior to the lecture.