|
National
Report on Human Exposure to
Environmental Chemicals
Biomonitoring
at a Glance
Biomonitoring
Program
Background
Biomonitoring
is the direct measurement of environmental chemicals, their primary metabolites, or
their reaction products (such as DNA-adducts) in people--usually in
blood or urine specimens. Currently,
human exposure information is limited.
Reliable and accurate exposure data are required for studies that
examine the relation between exposure and adverse health effects.
Decision makers need information about which environmental chemicals
actually get into people and at what levels to make decisions about public health issues that will benefit the American
public.
For
more than 25 years, DLS has measured environmental chemicals in
people, both for national studies of general population exposure and for
studies of specific potentially exposed populations.
The Biomonitoring Program continues to assess exposures ranging
from those causing deaths during acute emergencies to exposures that may cause cancer, birth defects, or neurologic or other
diseases. We collaborate
with other Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs), including the Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the National Center
for Health Statistics (NCHS), the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH). We also collaborate with many federal agencies,
including the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH); state and local health departments; the
World Health Organization (WHO); and academic institutions.
Goal
of the Biomonitoring Program
The
goal of the Biomonitoring Program is to help prevent environmental
disease by doing the following:
|
