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Human Biomonitoring Services
Intrinsik has conducted biomonitoring/evaluation of exposure studies in several Canadian communities as a means of measuring the exposure of individuals to chemicals such as arsenic, lead and mercury. An evaluation of exposure is a study that examines the level of an individual’s internal exposure to selected chemicals that they encounter. These types of studies are sometimes described as biomonitoring studies because they focus on quantifying exposure of humans to chemicals by measuring the amount of a chemical that is in an individual’s biological fluids or tissues (e.g., blood, urine, hair). These types of evaluations of exposure through biomonitoring have advantages to environmental monitoring (such as measuring chemicals in soil, air and water) as they provide information on the actual exposures experienced by people and account for exposures from all potential sources, pathways and routes that a person encounters.
In addition to the collection of biological samples, these studies can also include a detailed questionnaire for participants to collect information about their environment and various personal factors that may influence exposure to a given chemical such as household characteristics, occupations, diet and personal habits. Intrinsik has also included the collection of environmental samples from individual households of participants to examine the potential influence of various environmental media on levels of internal exposure. Environmental media to be collected and analyzed include:
- Outdoor soil
- Indoor dust (through wipe or vacuum samples)
- Drinking water
- Paint (using a portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer to analyze painted surfaces for the presence of lead and other contaminants)
Collecting information on personal factors and concentrations of chemicals in environmental media allows for a statistical analysis of the correlation between each of these factors and levels of internal exposure. This can provide important information that can be used to identify significant sources of exposure and methods that can be used to mitigate exposure.Overall, an evaluation of exposure study is a valuable tool that can be designed to answer several questions including:
- What is the current level of internal exposure to environmental contaminants in individuals living within a study area?
- Do the individuals within the study area have higher internal levels of environmental contaminants than individuals living in other areas?
- Based upon the current scientific literature, what are the health risks from the levels of environmental contaminants in individuals in the study area?
- What personal factors and/or environmental media are associated with the level of measured internal exposure of individuals in the study area
(e.g., home characteristics, occupation, environmental concentrations, age, gender, diet, personal habits, etc.)? - Are risk management measures required to mitigate exposure? Which measures may be most effective to mitigate exposure?