Human biomonitoring
The term human biomonitoring refers to the examination of human biological materials such as blood , urine , hair , saliva , breast milk, etc. for pollutants or their breakdown products by chemical analysis .
A large number of chemicals that we encounter in everyday life are absorbed by humans and can be detected in the body. Some of these substances are harmful to health because they have negative effects on the immune, nervous or endocrine systems as well as fertility and can harm unborn babies. With human biomonitoring, polluted population groups, individual pollution and regional differences can be identified.
The Austrian Federal Environment Agency has been operating an accredited test laboratory for human biomonitoring since 2007 and also analyzes the gender-specific effects of pollutants as part of this activity . The interdisciplinary platform for human biomonitoring (head of the Federal Environment Agency) strives to establish the method in Austria - as a contribution to health and environmental protection, to support national prevention goals and to expand national competence for human biomonitoring.
Since 2010 the Federal Environment Ministry has also been cooperating with the Verband der Chemischen Industrie e. V. (VCI), in order to gain better knowledge about the absorption of common industrial chemicals in the human organism. Analysis methods are to be developed for a total of up to fifty substances within ten years, i.e. by 2020. In 2014, detection methods were already in place for seven substances, including z. B. Chemicals like DINCH , DPHP and MDI . By 2017, methods had already been developed for 26 substances.
The EU “Children Environment and Health Action Plan 2004–2010” calls for the establishment of Europe-wide human biomonitoring. The EU project ESBIO (Expert Group to Support Biomonitoring in Europe) developed the essential fundamentals, COPHES (Consortium to perform human biomonitoring on a European Scale) creates the prerequisites for a harmonized European approach.
See also
Web links
- European Human Biomonitoring
- Human biomonitoring , Allum - presentation of the basics
- Human biomonitoring laboratory , Federal Environment Agency (Austria)
- Human Biomonitoring , Federal Office of Public Health (Switzerland)
- Health and environmental hygiene, human biomonitoring , Federal Environment Agency (Germany)