Science and Advocacy

Science is endlessly being modified and evolves each day. With new research that links environmental contaminants to public health problems, it’s important to stay updated with the latest news and familiarize yourself with potentially harmful chemicals and the policies that govern their use.

Many scientific studies now reference biomonitoring. "Biomonitoring, the measurement of chemicals in blood, urine, and other tissues or fluids, is becoming an increasingly common tool in the study of human exposure to environmental chemicals and the potential health effects of those chemicals." The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) now includes biomonitoring data for hundreds of chemicals, as well as information on other health and demographic endpoints for thousands of individuals in the United States. The NHANES databases provide valuable information for deriving reference ranges and trend information and can be used for hypothesis-generating analyses, but they cannot be used to establish causal relationships between environmental chemicals and health effects.

For more information read:

Environmental Chemicals in People: Challenges in Interpreting Biomonitoring Information

Judy S. LaKind, Ph.D., Leila Barraj, Ph.D., Nga Tran, Ph.D., Lesa L. Aylward, M.S.

Journal of Environmental Health

70 (9) 61-64, 2008 (PDF)