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. 2021 Aug:237:113809.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113809. Epub 2021 Aug 26.

HBM4EU combines and harmonises human biomonitoring data across the EU, building on existing capacity - The HBM4EU survey

Liese Gilles  1 , Eva Govarts  2 , Loïc Rambaud  3 , Nina Vogel  4 , Argelia Castaño  5 , Marta Esteban López  5 , Laura Rodriguez Martin  2 , Gudrun Koppen  2 , Sylvie Remy  2 , Martine Vrijheid  6 , Parisa Montazeri  6 , Laura Birks  6 , Ovnair Sepai  7 , Lorraine Stewart  7 , Ulrike Fiddicke  4 , Ilse Loots  8 , Lisbeth E Knudsen  9 , Marike Kolossa-Gehring  4 , Greet Schoeters  10
Affiliations

HBM4EU combines and harmonises human biomonitoring data across the EU, building on existing capacity - The HBM4EU survey

Liese Gilles et al. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

As part of the Human Biomonitoring for Europe (HBM4EU) initiative a human biomonitoring (HBM) survey is conducted in 21 countries. This survey builds on existing HBM capacity in Europe by aligning national or regional HBM studies. The survey targets 3 age groups (i) children aged 6-11 years, (ii) teenagers aged 12-19 years and (iii) young adults aged 20-39 years and includes a total of 9493 participants (3151 children, 2953 teenagers and 3389 young adults). Depending on the age group, internal exposure to phthalates and substitute Hexamoll® DINCH, brominated and organophosphorus flame retardants, per-/poly-fluorinated compounds, cadmium, bisphenols and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are assessed. The main goal of the programme is to obtain quality controlled and comparable HBM data of exposure to chemicals, prioritized under HBM4EU, with European wide coverage to inform the development of environment and health policies. This paper describes the framework of the HBM4EU survey and the approach that has been applied to align European HBM initiatives across Europe.

Keywords: Adults; Children; Human biomonitoring; Joint HBM4EU survey; Teenagers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report. We certify that the submission is original work and is not under review at any other publication.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Studies participating in the joint HBM survey targeting children (A), teenagers (B) and adults (C) representing all 4 geographical subregions in Europe North, East, South and West Europe based on United Nations geoscheme subregions of Europe. * For ESTEBAN and ESB the total number of subjects >300 because the group of 300 subjects differs per substance group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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