Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Mar;123(3):255-63.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.1408616. Epub 2014 Dec 11.

First steps toward harmonized human biomonitoring in Europe: demonstration project to perform human biomonitoring on a European scale

Elly Den Hond  1 , Eva Govarts, Hanny Willems, Roel Smolders, Ludwine Casteleyn, Marike Kolossa-Gehring, Gerda Schwedler, Margarete Seiwert, Ulrike Fiddicke, Argelia Castaño, Marta Esteban, Jürgen Angerer, Holger M Koch, Birgit K Schindler, Ovnair Sepai, Karen Exley, Louis Bloemen, Milena Horvat, Lisbeth E Knudsen, Anke Joas, Reinhard Joas, Pierre Biot, Dominique Aerts, Gudrun Koppen, Andromachi Katsonouri, Adamos Hadjipanayis, Andrea Krskova, Marek Maly, Thit A Mørck, Peter Rudnai, Szilvia Kozepesy, Maurice Mulcahy, Rory Mannion, Arno C Gutleb, Marc E Fischer, Danuta Ligocka, Marek Jakubowski, M Fátima Reis, Sónia Namorado, Anca Elena Gurzau, Ioana-Rodica Lupsa, Katarina Halzlova, Michal Jajcaj, Darja Mazej, Janja Snoj Tratnik, Ana López, Estrella Lopez, Marika Berglund, Kristin Larsson, Andrea Lehmann, Pierre Crettaz, Greet Schoeters
Affiliations

First steps toward harmonized human biomonitoring in Europe: demonstration project to perform human biomonitoring on a European scale

Elly Den Hond et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Background: For Europe as a whole, data on internal exposure to environmental chemicals do not yet exist. Characterization of the internal individual chemical environment is expected to enhance understanding of the environmental threats to health.

Objectives: We developed and applied a harmonized protocol to collect comparable human biomonitoring data all over Europe.

Methods: In 17 European countries, we measured mercury in hair and cotinine, phthalate metabolites, and cadmium in urine of 1,844 children (5-11 years of age) and their mothers. Specimens were collected over a 5-month period in 2011-2012. We obtained information on personal characteristics, environment, and lifestyle. We used the resulting database to compare concentrations of exposure biomarkers within Europe, to identify determinants of exposure, and to compare exposure biomarkers with health-based guidelines.

Results: Biomarker concentrations showed a wide variability in the European population. However, levels in children and mothers were highly correlated. Most biomarker concentrations were below the health-based guidance values.

Conclusions: We have taken the first steps to assess personal chemical exposures in Europe as a whole. Key success factors were the harmonized protocol development, intensive training and capacity building for field work, chemical analysis and communication, as well as stringent quality control programs for chemical and data analysis. Our project demonstrates the feasibility of a Europe-wide human biomonitoring framework to support the decision-making process of environmental measures to protect public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

E.D.H., E.G., H.W., R.S., G.K., and G.S. are employed by the Unit Environmental Risk and Health, VITO, Mol, Belgium, a public nonprofit research institute that receives core funding from the Flemish authorities and in-part funding through contracts from the public and private sector. L.B. is employed by Environmental Health Sciences International, Hulst, the Netherlands, a consulting company that has not consulted for industry during the last 3 years. A.J. and R.J. are employed by BiPRO GmbH, Munich, Germany, a consulting company for the public and private sectors. A.C.G. is employed by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Belvaux, Luxembourg, a public nonprofit research institute that receives core funding from the Luxembourg authorities and partial funding through contracts from the public and private sectors. D.L. and M.J. are employed by the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland, a scientific research center that deals with issues related to public health, environmental health, and occupational medicine and receives core funding from the Polish Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Higher Education and in-part funding from the public and private sectors for analyses made by ISO 17025–accredited laboratories or expertise-specific GLP laboratories. M.F.R. and S.N. are employed by the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, a public academic and research institute that receives partial funding from industrial contracts. A.E.G. and I.-R.L. are employed by the Environmental Health Center, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which offers consulting services to industry but does not receive funding from industry. These authors declare that no private funding was used to perform work related to this manuscript. The other authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of GMs (95% CIs) of biomarker concentrations (μg/L for urinary markers and μg/g for mercury in hair) in children and mothers of the participating countries. Country codes: BE, Belgium; CH, Switzerland; CY, Cyprus; CZ, Czech Republic; DE, Germany; DK, Denmark; ES, Spain; HU, Hungary; IE, Ireland; LU, Luxembourg; PL, Poland; PT, Portugal; RO, Romania; SE, Sweden; SI, Slovenia; SK, Slovak Republic; UK, United Kingdom. NA, no biomarker data available. For phthalate abbeviations, see Table 2. All data for children are adjusted for age and sex; urinary metabolites are additionally adjusted for urinary creatinine; all data in mothers are adjusted for age; urinary metabolites are additionally adjusted for urinary creatinine; urinary cadmium is additionally adjusted for smoking. Light blue: GM of country significantly below European GM. Dark blue: GM of country is significantly above European GM. White: no significant difference between GM of country and European GM. For European GMs, see Table 2.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Heat map showing clustering of biomarkers (dendrogram to the left side) and clustering of countries (dendrogram at the top). Red and blue intensities indicate fold increases and decreases, respectively (expressed as log2) in country-specific biomarker concentrations adjusted for age and sex relative to the European geometric mean. Abbreviations: Cd, cadmium; COT, cotinine; Hg, mercury. For country codes, see Figure 1. Country codes followed by M present concentrations in mothers; country codes followed by C present concentrations in children. Gray rectangles bordered in black lines indicate missing data.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Akerstrom M, Barregard L, Lundh T, Sallsten G. The relationship between cadmium in kidney and cadmium in urine and blood in an environmentally exposed population. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2013;268:286–293. - PubMed
    1. Angerer J, Bird MG, Burke TA, Doerrer NG, Needham L, Robison SH, et al. Strategic biomonitoring initiatives: moving the science forward. Toxicol Sci. 2006;93:3–10. - PubMed
    1. Avila-Tang E, Al-Delaimy WK, Ashley DL, Benowitz N, Bernert JT, Kim S, et al. Assessing secondhand smoke using biological markers. Tob Control. 2013;22:164–171. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aylward LL, Hays SM, Gagné M, Krishnan K. Derivation of Biomonitoring Equivalents for di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (CAS No. 117-81-7). Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2009a;55:249–258. - PubMed
    1. Aylward LL, Hays SM, Gagné M, Krishnan K. Derivation of Biomonitoring Equivalents for di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BzBP), and diethyl phthalate (DEP). Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2009b;55:259–267. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources