HARMLESS @ IP & NanOEH conference 2023

After celebrating the 60th anniversary of the ‘Inhaled Particles’ conference series in May 2022 (two years later than originally expected due to SARS-COV-2 and its associated issues), the organisers were able to successfully hold the 13th edition of the Inhaled Particles conference series on the 15-18 May 2023 in Manchester (UK). Due to the bottleneck that COVID-19 has given to the conference circuit, the event was co-hosted with the 10th edition of the NanOEH conference series. Combining these two conferences together allowed for the wider particle science community to join and share their research in the areas of exposure, health and aerosol science. Bringing 197 delegates, 3 sponsors, and 8 exhibitors, the three-day conference showcased the true spirit of scientific research, and enabled a multitude of students to attend their first conference and showcase their own research within the community that has sorely missed face-to-face conferences in the past three years.

The conference started with a welcome from the incoming British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) President, Alex Wilson, who highlighted the 70th anniversary of the BOHS, and how the Inhaled Particles conference series has been the epitome of the BOHS in terms of conference series throughout the current lifetime of the BOHS. A total of six keynote speakers highlighted the important scientific areas of carbon nanotubes, micro nano plastics, adverse outcome pathways, air pollution, particle exposure and health as well as particle exposure and monitoring. With over 90 oral presentations and 63 posters and 37 poster flash presentations, stakeholders from academia, industry, consultancy and regulation, coming from 19 different countries, globally, enabled interdisciplinary thinking and discussions to take place.

HARMLESS was very well represented at the conference: Martin Clift was organising chair of the Inhaled Particles Conference. Together with Tobias Stöger (HMGU) both were members of the Scientific Committee of the Inhaled Particles Conference. Additionally, Ulla Vogel (NRCWE) was part of the Scientific Committee at the NanOEH conference. Additionally, one member of our Advisory Board, Dr Sabina Halappanavar (Health Canada) was key note speaker. Some partners were chairing some of the sessions (Wendel Wohlleben (BASF), session “Risk Management Evaluation”). Furthermore, many other project partners had oral presentations and / or posters in the conference: Sian Brooks and Angela Saccardo (Swansea University), Ulla Vogel (NRCWE), Otmar Schmid, Tobias Stoeger, Carola Voss, Lianyong Han, Lin Yang (HGMU), Wendel Wohlleben and Veronica Di Battista (BASF), Neeraj Shandilya and Wouter Fransman (TNO), Andrea Haase (BfR) and others attended.

Some highlights of HARMLESS’ oral presentations and posters:

Oral presentations:

Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) was an invited speaker of the conference in the session on “Particle risk and construction material” chaired by Jenny Roberts (NIOSH) – Fibre-aerogel-mats for façade insulation: How to guide SSbD development by screenings?
Veronica Di Battista (BASF) – Safe-by-Design guidance for MultiComponent Nanostructured Materials(MCNM): heavy metals containing perovskites
Wouter Fransman (TNO) – Nano Exposure Quantifier (NEQ) – A quantitative tool for assessing exposure in the workplace
Neeraj Shandilya (TNO) on the Silica case study from HARMLESS and the measurements performed in Sweden – Safe and sustainable by design advanced materials: A case study on paint formulations
Ulla Vogle (NRCWE) – (Nano)particle exposure, acute phase response and cardiovascular disease
Carola Voss (HMGU) – Persistent macrophage depletion and arrested replenishment is dependent on carbon nanotube type as shown by single cell transcriptomics
Lianyong Han (HMGU) – Lung single cell transcriptomics to guide the development of AOP anchored cell-based assays in response to nanoparticle exposure
Lin Yang (HMGU) – Multimodal imaging and artificial intelligence unveil hot-spot deposition, bronchial/alveolar dose and cellular fate of biopersistent nanoparticles in the lung

Poster presentations:

Poster and flash presentation by Sian Brooks (SU), “An investigation into mechanisms responsible for (geno)toxicity induced by exposure to industrially relevant multi component nanomaterials and high aspect ratio nanomaterials”, presenting her current data from the HARMLESS project for in vitro data generation, mainly focusing on the perovskites and similar materials.
Eva M. Guenther (HMGU) – Impact of carbon nanoparticle–triggered gammaherpesvirus reactivation on lung immunity and diseases
Hongyu Ren (HMGU) – Linking the molecular mechanisms of alveolar macrophage cell death induced by inhaled nanoparticles with the subsequent pathological outcome
Neeraj Shandilya (TNO) – TRAAC framework and tool for regulatory acceptance and wider usability of tools/methods for safe innovation and sustainability of nanomaterials

Program