How did the research turn out? What were the findings? Researchers themselves report briefly on the research they have undertaken with funding support from the Formas Research Council.
Editor: Margaretha Nordahl
Problem solving by consumers in the new arenas of the food market
Ann-Mari Sellerberg (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Department of Sociology, Lund University.
Email: Ann_Mari.Sellerberg@soc.lu.se
Eating habits and the use of ready meals in everyday life have been studied in families with teenage children, where the time schedules of the family members are highly individualised. On a macroplane, we are also moving towards a tendency that different time structures are made more flexible and informal. In combination with the availability on the market of a greater choice of semifinished and finished products, this makes it interesting to survey the eating habits of families. How are meals organised in a situation with a shortage of time, and how do families regard ready meals and meals cooked at home? We live in a society where there is a polarisation between the time-rich and the time-poor.
Family meals are described as highly prioritised, and most people both buy ready meals and cook themselves to cater for individual needs in time and space. Cooking time and the use of ready meals depend on whether or not the whole household are together. When all are together, more time is invested in cooking. Shortage of time is often referred to in families with two incomes, where there are both short and hectic meals and long wholesome meals. The material distinguishes among three typical situations when ready meals are used: When teenagers are responsible for cooking, when not all are at home, or when someone who does not usually cook is responsible for the dinner.
Endocrical effects of dioxin-like environmental pollutants – mechanistic studies as the basis for improved risk assessment
Annika Hanberg (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute.
Email: annika.hanberg@ki.se
The effects of environmental contaminants and other chemicals on the hormonal system have been noted as a potential health problem. Everybody ingests dioxins and other dioxin-like compounds (e.g. PCB) through the food we eat, e.g. fatty fish. The most toxic dioxin (TCDD) can influence foetal development of the brain, immune and reproductive systems and can also cause cancer. It is assumed that all dioxin-like compounds work in the same way as TCDD and give rise to the same effects. Against the background that all dioxin-like compounds are assumed to have a common mechanism of action and only differ in potency, an equivalation system (TEF) has been developed to manage this problem. The system is used today in assessing health hazards due to dioxins and dioxin-like PCB. For other dioxin-like compounds there are as yet no TEF values available because of scarcity of data. Since exposure cannot be lowered significantly in the short term, it is extremely important to develop the scientific basis for risk assessment, i.e. to identify the mechanisms. The objective of the project was to answer the question of whether all dioxin-like environmental toxins have the same hormone-disrupting effects as TCDD, and if so, in what way?
The results indicate that the effects of dioxins on oestrogen are affected by the levels of endogenous oestrogen, and therefore there is a difference by sex and age. The model studied is a useful model for further studies of the mechanisms underlying the most sensitive effects of dioxin-like compounds.
Responsible for this page: Kerstin Franklin