Biomonitoring

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The term biomonitoring or bio-monitoring is used in various specialist disciplines.

Occupational and environmental medicine

In occupational and environmental medicine , it means the determination of pollutants, their metabolic products and their forms bound to proteins or DNA in the organism. These substances can be quantitatively detected in body fluids . Biomonitoring is a valuable opportunity to protect individuals from the effects of harmful substances (individual prevention).

Through bio-monitoring or engl. Biomonitoring can specifically and sensitively record the pollutant dose absorbed by the individual (internal exposure; dose monitoring). The analysis methods available today make it possible to detect many pollutants in very low concentrations that are relevant to environmental medicine. Many metals, organic solvents, persistent and non- persistent pesticides, aromatic amines and aromatic nitro compounds, polycondensed aromatic hydrocarbons and other substances can now be measured quantitatively. However, suitable methods for dose monitoring still need to be developed for many plant protection products, for example.

After its first beginnings in the 1930s, biomonitoring has steadily gained in importance in occupational and environmental medicine since the 1960s. Its wider application has been made possible by better and better analytical techniques . Germany used medical bio-surveillance earlier and more consistently than other countries to prevent damage to health caused by chemical substances. The Senate Commission for the Examination of Harmful Working Materials of the German Research Foundation has been committed to the development of valid and tested analytical methods since 1975 . In 1979, the Working Materials Commission was the first to recommend health tolerable limit values ​​in the form of biological working material tolerance values ​​( BAT ). The US followed suit. Since 1984 the German Society for Occupational Medicine and Environmental Medicine has ensured the quality of the results of the biomonitoring through round robin tests. In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs sets binding biological limit values (BGW, formerly BAT ) and workplace limit values (AGW, formerly MAK) for hazardous substances. These must at least comply with the relevant EU regulations.

The Ordinance on Occupational Health Care ( ArbMedVV ) stipulates in Section 6 (2) that biomonitoring is part of the occupational health check-up in Germany. However, the condition for the implementation is that recognized analysis methods and values ​​are available for assessing the findings. The occupational health rule 6.2. "Biomonitoring" specifies that the following values ​​can be used to assess biomonitoring findings: biological limit values of TRGS 903 or the Scientific Committee for limit values ​​for occupational exposure of the EU, biological substance tolerance values ​​of the DFG , biological guide values ​​of the DFG, biological Working substance reference values ​​of the DFG, equivalence values ​​in biological material for the acceptance and tolerance risk according to TRGS 910 , exposure equivalents for carcinogenic working substances of the DFG and reference values ​​of the Human Biomonitoring Commission of the Federal Environment Agency.

ecology

In ecology , the term biomonitoring or bio- observation is used for the regularly repeated observation, monitoring and measurement (" monitoring ") of the condition and population of plants and animals and their communities to determine the environmental quality .

Conclusions about the quality and quantity of chemical-physical environmental changes of anthropogenic origin are drawn from changes in the state or population of the living world . The evaluation of measured changes compared to the normal state takes place using indicative properties of these organisms or certain indicatively significant processes in the organisms. In biomonitoring, a distinction must be made between short-term effects, in the form of spontaneous behavioral changes and possibly rapid mortality of the organisms as a result of acute toxicity , and long-term effects, ie mostly chronic damage to mortality of the organisms due to permanently high levels of exposure . Secured long-term observations have been carried out in Germany since 1781 and today represent a valuable basis in environmental research. One area of ​​biomonitoring is wildlife monitoring as the basis for wildlife management .

Active and passive biomonitoring

A distinction is made between active and passive biomonitoring. With active biomonitoring, an organism is brought to the region to be examined and exposed to the prevailing environmental conditions for a certain period of time. Depending on the question, the period can last from a few hours to several years. With passive biomonitoring, organisms are examined or sampled in their natural habitat. Passive biomonitoring allows retrospective considerations, for example to examine the effects of damaging events.

While the first applications of passive biomonitoring were documented in the middle of the 19th century, the first active biomonitoring is dated to the year 1899. An example of active biomonitoring is to study the effects of air pollution near airports by there kale plants are specifically grown and observed. The reaction of mosses in their natural habitat to reactive nitrogen compounds in the air can be used as an example of passive biomonitoring.

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 6 of the Ordinance on Occupational Health Care (ArbMedVV)
  2. ↑ Occupational medicine rule AMR No. 6.2 Biomonitoring, GMBl No. 5 of February 24, 2014, p. 91, BAuA
  3. ↑ The Treasure of the Centuries . - Article in the period of 25 November 2009
  4. ↑ Sabrina Streif Wildlife Monitoring and Wildlife Officer - Tasks and Challenges
  5. ↑ VDI 3957 sheet 1: 2014-09 Biological measurement methods for determining and assessing the effects of air pollution on plants (biomonitoring); Basics and objectives (Biological measuring techniques for the determination and evaluation of effects of air pollutants on plants (biomonitoring); Fundamentals and aims). Beuth Verlag, Berlin, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Willfried Nobel, Heike Beismann, Jürgen Franzaring, Reinhard Kostka-Rick, Gerhard Wagner, Walter Erhardt: Standardized biological measurement methods for determining and evaluating the effects of air pollution on plants (bioindication) in Germany. In: Hazardous substances - cleanliness. Air . 65, No. 11/12, 2005, ISSN  0949-8036 , pp. 478-484.
  7. ↑ DIN EN 16413: 2014-08 outside air; Biomonitoring with lichen; Mapping the diversity of epiphytic lichens; German version EN 16413: 2014. Beuth Verlag, Berlin, p. 4.
  8. ↑ Monica Wäber, Sebastian Aust, Kai Johannsen, Frank Pompe, Jochen Heimberg: Biomonitoring with kale and grass culture in the vicinity of the future Berlin Brandenburg Airport - long-term investigation of possible environmental effects of air traffic and airport operations. In: Hazardous substances - cleanliness. Air. 75, No. 4, 2015, ISSN  0949-8036 , pp. 137-142.
  9. ^ Karsten Mohr: Biomonitoring of nitrogen deposition with mosses. In: Hazardous substances - cleanliness. Air. 74, No. 6, 2014, ISSN  0949-8036 , pp. 263-265.