NoMiracle will help increase knowledge on the transfer of pollutants between different environmental compartments, and on the impact of cumulative stressors, 
including chemical mixtures. This will facilitate human and ecosystem health monitoring by providing the link with information concerning the condition 
of air, water, soil and the built environment. By developing and using improved assessment tools and novel models, the project will quantify and aim at reducing 
uncertainty in current risk assessment and screening methodologies, for example by improving the scientific basis for setting safety factors. The new methods 
will take into account geographical, ecological, social and cultural differences across Europe. 
            

The interaction between environment and health is far more complex than is commonly understood. In particular, little attention has been paid to the interaction 
of different pollutants in the human body as well as in the environment. Even low level exposure over a period of time to a complex cocktail of pollutants in air, 
water, food and consumer products is likely to contribute significantly to the health status of European citizens.   
  
Within this project we will improve both human and environmental risk assessment procedures by addressing a series of major shortcomings that exist within 
the current approaches, namely that:   
  
  
they are based on direct effects of single compounds or products   
they apply uncertainty factors which are not strictly based on scientific principles   
they do not account for multiple stressors and indirect effects in a dynamic and heterogeneous environment   
they typically do not account for cumulative (integrated over time, space, substances) effects, and   
they do not allow for site specific and other spatially detailed evaluations   
Although it is generally acknowledged that chemical, biological, radiological, and other physical and even psychological stressors can cause a variety 
of human health or ecological health effects, assessing the risks associated with them is considerably more complex methodologically and computationally 
than current risk assessment practices. Given these lacunas there is an urgent need for ”cumulative risk assessment” which can be defined as “an analysis, 
characterisation, and possible quantification of the combined risks to health or the environment from multiple agents or stressors”.   
  
Development of a framework for such complex risk assessments will greatly improve understanding of the effects of cumulative exposures occurring under 
the variety of field conditions within Europe and will provide a better scientific basis for forecasting risks and associated uncertainties.   
  
The understanding of the complexity of cumulative risks is a prerequisite for development of more efficient guidelines to provide data for future regulation 
of chemicals.   
  
  
Science & technology objectives   
  
  
To develop new methods for assessing the cumulative risks from combined exposures to several stressors including mixtures of chemical and physical/biological 
agents   
To achieve more effective integration of the risk analysis of environmental and human health effects   
To improve our understanding of complex exposure situations and develop adequate tools for sound exposure assessment   
To develop a research framework for the description and interpretation of cumulative exposure and effect   
To quantify, characterise and reduce uncertainty in current risk assessment methodologies, e.g. by improvement of the scientific basis for setting safety 
factors   
To develop assessment methods which take into account geographical, ecological, social and cultural differences in risk concepts and risk perceptions 
across Europe   
To improve the provisions for the application of the precautionary principle and to promote its operational integration with evidence-based assessment 
methodologies