Correspondence
The Assessment of Environmental and Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Substances by Biomonitoring: Epidemiological Benefits
Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106(30): 507. DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2009.0507b
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It is generally accepted that industrial biomonitoring is a valuable tool as it helps to control workplace-related threshold limit values. It is also capable to determine a quantitative relationship between external and internal exposure and to support the diagnosis of diseases caused by acute effects of harmful substances. Biomonitoring may also be used in epidemiological studies to determine group differences between subjects with high and low exposure to improve the description of average pollutant concentrations from chronic exposure.However, when assessing health risks of chronic diseases with long induction periods that arise from these exposures, the article is a bit short-spoken. Biomonitoring is less meaningful when studying these diseases, such as most types of cancer (1). Due to the short half-life of most of these agents, past exposures can hardly be estimated by biomonitoring procedures. In some cases risk estimation is only possible when complex mathematical models are applied.
Occupational epidemiologists use a variety of methods to evaluate these exposure scenarios, including historical ones, and the associated risks. Data sources, such as registry data, archive materials, expert evaluations and personal assessment by employees, as well as biological parameters or workplace measurements, may be for example combined in job exposure matrices which allow for automatic classification of historical exposures to evaluate health risks in epidemiological studies.
DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2009.0507b
Dr. med. Thomas Behrens, MPH
Dr. med. Birte Mester, MPH
Bremer Institut für Präventionsforschung
und Sozialmedizin
Universität Bremen
Linzer Str. 10
28359 Bremen, Germany
behrens@bips.uni-bremen.de
1.
Ahrens W, Behrens T, Mester B, Schmeißer N: Epidemiologie in der Arbeitswelt. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz 2008; 51: 255–65.
2.
Budnik L T, Baur X: The assessment of environmental and occupational exposure to hazardous substances by biomonitoring [Biomonitoring zur Erfassung umwelt- und arbeitsbedingter Schadstoffbelastungen]. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106: 91–7.
