A1401 Reliable methods for the biomonitoring of occupational exposure published by the DFG Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area

Monday, March 19, 2012
Ground Floor (Cancun Center)
Thomas Göen, Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Elisabeth Eckert, Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Of Erlangen-nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Anja Schäferhenrich, Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Andrea Hartwig, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, DFG - Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Karlsruhe, Germany
Introduction
In 1955 the Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area was founded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The Commission advises the German government and its agencies concerning the estimation of health risks by chemical exposure and their prevention. Within the commission the working group “Analyses of Hazardous Substances in Biological Materials” (AIBM) deals with the development of procedures to analyze chemical substances in biological materials. The presentation gives an overview of the AIBM working group and of the manifold applications of the developed methods.

Methods
Generally, a member of the working group or an external expert submits a biomonitoring method to the group. After a first discussion the AIBM group selects an examiner, who tries to reproduce the method in her/his laboratory and to verify the reliability criteria. The examination report is discussed within the group. The method may be adopted for publication or may be given back to the author with the demand for revision. In case of fundamental drawbacks the method is rejected. The adopted methods are published at regular intervals in German and in English.

Results
Since 1985 the working group published 139 analytical methods and 12 general reviews on biomonitoring techniques in 12 issues of the English edition. These procedures refer to the analyses of different agents or effects in human biological materials: metals (43), solvents (24), pesticides (16), markers of susceptibility (11), biomarkers for combustion products and tobacco smoke (6), biological effect markers (6) and further occupationally used chemicals (33). Additionally, most of the methods enable the determination of the environmental exposure also.

Discussion
The AIBM working group promotes the development and publication of biomonitoring methods for the determination of occupational and environmental chemical exposure. The crucial benefit of this work is the supply of unambiguous composed procedures with proven reliability.

See more of: Advances in Biological Monitoring
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