Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-14
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, biomonitoring data have helped to identify chemicals found in the environ 1A reference dose is an estimate (with uncertainty spanning perhaps an order of magnitude) of a daily oral exposure to the human population (including sensitive subgroups)
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The ability to generate new biomonitoring data often exceeds the ability to evaluate whether and how a chemical measured in an individual or population may cause a health risk or to evaluate its sources and pathways for exposure. As CDC states in its National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, the presence of a chemical in a blood or urine specimen does not mean that the chemical causes a health risk or disease.
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It was asked to develop an overall research agenda for addressing the uncertainties in biomonitoring data, to improve evaluations and characterizations of health risks from biomonitoring data, and to improve tracking of changes in biomonitoring data potentially relevant to public health. In undertaking its evaluation, the committee focused primarily on biomonitoring in population-based studies, such as CDC's National Report on Human Exposures to Environmental Chemicals and EPA's National Human Exposure Assessment Survey, because these studies raise the most far-reaching and challenging issues regarding the interpretation of biomonitoring data.
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The framework will serve as a guide for interpreting the studies, in setting priorities among research needs, and in communicating study objectives to various audiences. Considerations in the Design of Biomonitoring Studies The National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, produced by CDC, is based on a representative sample of the population and a large number of chemicals, and uses well-documented analytic techniques.
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to facilitate interpreting the data -- an inconsistent practice at present. Laboratory analysis of human samples for trace concentrations of chemicals inevitably introduces some deviation from the true concentration into the sample results; federal agencies, such as CDC and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and statutes, such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act, could play important roles in improving the overall quality of biomonitoring data and their utility for health-related applications.
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Communicating Results from Biomonitoring Studies Communicating biomonitoring results may be the most vexing challenge to the field of biomonitoring. Communication is essential to proper
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Practical measures include use of consistent terminology and concepts, expanded biomonitoring education for constituencies, communication training, and public documentation of methods to reduce exposures contributing to biomarkers of concern. Research measures include identifying how experts and nonexperts think about exposure and health effects, assessing current biomonitoring communication methods and impacts, identifying communication issues with respect to uncertainties in biomonitoring studies, and identifying beliefs and attitudes about exposure reduction and risk managers.
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, but the uncoordinated fashion in which such biomonitoring has occurred has allowed widespread exposures to go undetected -- for example, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and PFOA. In addition, susceptible subpopulations, including infants and children, are generally omitted from large-scale biomonitoring studies because of difficulty in sample collection.
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Epidemiologic, toxicologic, and exposure assessment studies have not adequately incorporated biomonitor ing data for interpretation of health risks at the individual, commu nity, and population levels. Recommendation: Develop biomonitoring-based epidemiologic, tox icologic, and exposure-assessment investigations and public-health surveillance to interpret the risks posed by low-level exposure to envi ronmental chemicals.
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Finding: Effective communication of results is among the biggest challenges to the future of biomonitoring. Without appropriate strat egies for understanding communication issues in the design, imple mentation, and evaluation of biomonitoring studies, the power to interpret and use the resulting data effectively is hampered.
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Analysis of human specimens for trace concentrations of environmental chemicals poses serious challenges to analytic chemistry. The growth in biomonitoring has provided for a new generation of more sensitive and selective instruments for chemical analysis; however, the costs associated with that equipment and the specialized skills required to perform the analyses have limited the number of laboratories capable of conducting the measurements.
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Population-based biomonitoring studies provide potentially valuable data for researchers, public-health officials, and the public for identifying human exposures, understanding trends, fostering public-health interventions, and validating environmental-health policies. However, the tool has underscored the critical need to address methodologic, ethical, and communication challenges.
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SUMMARY 13 tions of biomonitoring results and communicating findings to the public. In its final chapter, the committee presents a research agenda that incorporates an integrated approach for setting priorities among biomarkers for development; supports the epidemiologic, toxicologic, and exposureassessment science required to interpret biomonitoring data; and fosters the ethical and communication research required to convey study results effectively.
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