Making sense of human biomonitoring data: Findings and recommendations of a workshop

Abstract

The ability to measure chemicals in humans (often termed biomonitoring) is far outpacing the ability to interpret reliably these data for public health purposes, creating a major knowledge gap. Until this gap is filled, the great promise of routinely using biomonitoring data to support decisions to protect public health cannot be realized. Research is needed to link biomonitoring data quantitatively to the potential for adverse health risks, either through association with health outcomes or using information on the concentration and duration of exposure, which can then be linked to health guidelines. Developing such linkages in the risk assessment paradigm is one of the primary goals of the International Council of Chemical Associations' (ICCA) Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) program in the area of biomonitoring. Therefore, ICCA sponsored a workshop to facilitate development of a coordinated agenda for research to enable an improved interpretation of human biomonitoring data. Discussions addressed three main topics: (1) exploration of the link between exposure, dose, and human biomonitoring data, (2) the use of computational tools to interpret biomonitoring data, and (3) the relevance of human biomonitoring data to the design of toxicological studies. Several overarching themes emerged from the workshop: (a) Interpretation and use of biomonitoring data should involve collaboration across all sectors (i.e., industry, government, and academia) and countries. (b) Biomonitoring is not a stand-alone tool, and it should be linked to exposure and toxicological dose information. (c) Effective communication is critical, because when uncertainty about the actual risks is high, the perceived risks grow in the absence of communication. (d) The scope of future biomonitoring activities encompasses a variety of research approaches — from advancing the science to fill data gaps to advancing the accessibility of the current knowledge to enable better information sharing.