Chemicals in Our Bodies:
Use of Biomonitoring Data for Policymaking

Friday, March 20, 2009, Noon -1:30 p.m.
485 Russell Senate Office Building

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Introductory Remarks

Michael Holsapple
Executive Director of the International Life Sciences Institute Health and Environmental Sciences Institute
2009 Vice President-Elect of the Society of Toxicology

Summary

The American public regularly encounters a range of natural and man-made chemicals in our environment. To craft effective environmental and public health policies, policymakers must be able to identify and understand how we are exposed to chemicals and which exposures create health risks. Biomonitoring – measuring levels of chemical

compounds in the human body – is a tool that can track trends in chemical exposures over time or identify populations with high exposures. The ability to collect data on exposure levels, however, often exceeds our understanding of what those exposure levels mean for individuals and populations. This briefing addressed the potential opportunities and limitations presented by biomonitoring data for policymaking, and discussed recent progress in the field.

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Sponsors

The American Chemical Society Science and the Congress Project and the Society of Toxicology

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Related Content

• Making Sense of Biomonitoring C&EN, 86(04), pp. 52-56, January 28, 2008.
• Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals, National Research Council, 2006.
• The Opportunities and Limitations of Biomonitoring Mackinac Center Policy Brief, D. Juberg, J. Bus, D. Katz, February 2008.
• Interpreting Human Biomonitoring in a Health Risk Context: Creating Chemical-Specific Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs) and Related Communication Materials, Brochure, Summit Toxicology
• Summaries of Relevant Legislation (Congressional Research Service, collated by ACS & SOT) March, 2009.