Joint press release by the German Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety

Significantly lower levels of mercury and lead, more plasticisers

Flasbarth: Human and environmental specimen banks are indispensable

a blood sample is taken from a womanClick to enlarge
Human biomonitoring detects pollutants in the human organism
Source: Guido Grochowski / Fotolia.com

Which pollutants are people exposed to nowadays and which have diminished as a result of environmental legislation? These are some of the questions which experts will be discussing today at the international conference "Human Biomonitoring - Science and Policy for a healthy future" in Berlin. The conference will focus on new research results from some of the world's premier human biomonitoring (HBM) programmes in Canada, Israel and the USA. In his opening speech State Secretary for Environment Jochen Flasbarth said: "Human biomonitoring is an outstanding early warning system to signal problematic human exposure to pollutants. It helps us to confirm the success of our chemicals policy and to identify areas for priority action."

President Maria Krautzberger of the German Environment Agency said: "The 'classic' chemicals – lead, mercury, cadmium, DDT and PCB – have been reduced significantly in Germany. What we now worry about, however, is the high level of children's exposure to certain plasticisers being used on a broad basis in the production of plastics, where chemicals about which too little is known are involved, often as a substitute for chemicals which have been prohibited in the meantime."

Mr Flasbarth emphasised: "Human biomonitoring data must also make a contribution to European chemicals policy. We need more cooperation at international level to ensure this occurs in a precautionary and systematic way. The EU Commission has taken the initiative in this respect, but we must also network our data and initiatives beyond the borders of the EU, because chemicals are used everywhere in the world."

Experts from 35 countries will be discussing the problems and successes of longstanding HBM programmes at the two-day "Human Biomonitoring - Science and Policy for a healthy future" conference. HBM policy strategy aspects and HBM's place in chemicals policy will be examined in two panel discussions. The conference is being organised by the Federal Ministry for Environment and the German Environment Agency.

HBM is a key information and monitoring instrument for health-related environmental protection. HBM studies deliver the scientific data necessary for making environmental policy decisions, for example on chemicals in the human organism, on population groups with particularly high levels of exposure and on the effects of the regulation of chemicals. The data can be used to evaluate the population's level of protection and to identify any further need for action.

Umweltbundesamt Headquarters

Wörlitzer Platz 1
06844 Dessau-Roßlau
Germany

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 human biomonitoring  human specimen bank