What is Biomonitoring?

Biomonitoring is the assessment of human exposure to chemicals by measuring the chemicals or their metabolites in human biological specimens including blood or urine. A metabolite is the chemical alteration of the original compound produced by body tissues. Blood and urine levels reflect the amount of the chemical that actually gets into the body from the environment.

Several government agencies within the United Sates, Canada, and Europe are either currently conducting or planning to conduct large scale biomonitoring programs to gather information on the concentrations of selected chemicals in human blood or urine.  Currently, over 300 different compounds have been quantified in human blood or urine samples. 

See the Additional Resources and Information page for links to sites with additional information on biomonitoring.