Pollution gets personal! A first population-based human biomonitoring study in Austria

Hohenblum, Philipp; Steinbichl, Philipp; Raffesberg, Wolfgang; Weiß, Stefan; Moche, Wolfgang; Vallant, Birgit; Scharf, Sigrid; Haluza, Daniela; Moshammer, Hanns; Kundi, Michael; Brigitte, Piegler; Wallner, Peter; Hutter, Hans-Peter

doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2011.08.015

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is supported by experiences from Austria and the United States. An Austrian survey (Hohenblum et al, 2012) suffered from a low participation rate of 4%, mainly due to a fixed fieldwork week without possibility to change to another week. Morris et al (2012) described their experiences of being an interviewer in the United States, clearly showing the necessity to react flexibly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learnt on recruitment and fieldwork from a pilot European human biomonitoring survey

Fiddicke

Becker

Schwedler

et al. 2015

Environmental Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Within the European Environment and Health Action Plan an initiative to establish a coherent human biomonitoring approach in Europe was started. The project COPHES (COnsortium to Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale ) developed recommendations for a harmonized conduct of a human biomonitoring (HBM) survey which came into action as the pilot study DEMOCOPHES (DEMOnstration of a study to COordinate and Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale). Seventeen European countries conducted a survey with harmonized instruments for, inter alia, recruitment, fieldwork and sampling, in autumn/winter 2011/2012. Based on the countries' experiences of conducting the pilot study, following lessons learnt were compiled: the harmonized fieldwork instruments (basic questionnaire, urine and hair sampling) turned out to be very valuable for future HBM surveys on the European scale. A school approach was favoured by most of the countries to recruit school-aged children according to the established guidelines and country specific experiences. To avoid a low participation rate, intensive communication with the involved institutions and possible participants proved to be necessary. The communication material should also include information on exclusion criteria and offered incentives. Telephone contact to the participants the day before fieldwork during the survey can prevent the forgetting of appointments and first morning urine samples. To achieve comparable results on the European scale, training of interviewers in all issues of recruitment, fieldwork and sampling through information material and training sessions is crucial. A survey involving many European countries needs time for preparation and conduct. Materials for quality control prepared for all steps of recruitment, fieldwork and sampling proved to be important to warrant reliable results.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learnt on recruitment and fieldwork from a pilot European human biomonitoring survey

Fiddicke

Becker

Schwedler

et al. 2015

Environmental Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The levels of PBDEs were lower than expected given the high concentrations of PBDE in house dust samples and people primarily exposed to PBDEs via air and ingestion of house dust. However, these findings indicate that the background body burden detected is not negligible (Hohenblum et al, 2012). The measured levels of phthalates in Austria are below the levels detected in the USA and in Germany.…”

Section: Results/interpretations/communication To Publicmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…(Hohenblum et al, 2012). The findings of phthalate metabolites from this study can be found in Table 31 (Hohenblum & Hutter, 2011).…”

Section: Results/interpretations/communication To Publicmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The findings have been published as a report (Hohenblum & Hutter, 2011), publicly accessible on the Austrian Environmental Agency's website, and as a short communication (Hohenblum et al, 2012).…”

Section: Results/interpretations/communication To Publicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was managed by the Environmental Agency Austria and funded by the Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Hohenblum et al, 2012). It started in 2008 and finished at the end of May 2011.…”

Section: Austria [Schadstoffe Im Menschen ("Pollutants In Humans")]mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Review of the state of the art of human biomonitoring for chemical substances and its application to human exposure assessment for food safety

Choi¹,

Mørck²,

Polcher³

et al. 2015

EFS3

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human biomonitoring (HBM) measures the levels of substances in body fluids and tissues. Many countries have conducted HBM studies, yet little is known about its application towards chemical risk assessment, particularly in relation to food safety. Therefore a literature search was performed in several databases and conference proceedings for 2002 -2014. Definitions of HBM and biomarkers, HBM techniques and requirements, and the possible application to the different steps of risk assessment were described. The usefulness of HBM for exposure assessment of chemical substances from food source, and for the implementation of a systematic Post Market Monitoring (PMM) approach for regulated chemical substances was evaluated. An inventory of HBM programmes provides detailed information about study design, analytical methods, reference values (RV) and biomarkers used. Environmental monitoring and associations between HBM values and food, as well as coverage of substances and remaining deficits are highlighted. The review of study results provides information on emerging chemicals, higher exposed and particularly vulnerable populations.Conclusions: HBM can bring added value for chemical risk assessment in food safety areas (namely exposure assessment), and for the implementation of a systematic PMM approach. But further work needs to be done to improve usability. Major deficits are the lack of HBM guidance values on a considerable number of substance groups, for which health based guidance values (HBGVs) have been developed, insufficient knowledge regarding exposure sources, and incomplete dietary intake assessment. Recommendations: We recommend to foster development of HBM based guidance values and validated analytical methods/BMs, stronger inclusion of substances of interest for EFSA in European surveys, expanded monitoring of highly exposed and vulnerable subgroups, uptake of EFSA guidance concerning dietary intake assessment, as well as biobanking, surveillance synergies and targeted research, and an EU wide collaborative approach to support the future use of HBM in PMM.©BiPRO GmbH, 2015 DISCLAIMERThe present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded following a tender procedure. The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by the Authority. The European Food Safety Authority reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors. The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). This task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a contract between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s), awarded foll...

show abstract

Biomonitoring to Assess Exposures to Mixtures of Environmental Chemicals

Calafat¹

2018

Chemical Mixtures and Combined Chemical and Nonchemical Stressors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pollution gets personal! A first population-based human biomonitoring study in Austria

Cited by 21 publications

References 10 publications

Lessons learnt on recruitment and fieldwork from a pilot European human biomonitoring survey

Lessons learnt on recruitment and fieldwork from a pilot European human biomonitoring survey

Review of the state of the art of human biomonitoring for chemical substances and its application to human exposure assessment for food safety

Biomonitoring to Assess Exposures to Mixtures of Environmental Chemicals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About