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HBM in other countries
HBM Germany
Since 1985 the Federal Environmental Agency performs the nationwide and representative German Environmental Surveys (GerES) to analyze the exposure situation of the German population.
Four surveys are already completed. The last survey exclusively concentrates on children aged 3 – 14 years.
The following table (Table 1) presents the surveys’ periods, the number of subjects and the number of examined chemicals. The latter doubled since at the beginning of the first German Environmental Survey.
The following table (Table 1) presents the surveys’ periods, the number of subjects and the number of examined chemicals. The latter doubled since at the beginning of the first German Environmental Survey.
| Year | Number of examined chemicals | Number of subjects | |
| GerES I | 1985 - 1986 | 12 | 2700 |
| GerES II | 1990 - 1992 | 16 | 400 - 2500 |
| GerES III | 1998 | 20 | 4800 |
| *GerES IV | 2003 - 2006 | 22 | 1800 |
*children only
The data of the surveys provide the base for the Commission Human Biomonitoring for the deduction and the establishment of the so-called reference values. The reference value of a chemical in a body fluid (e.g. urine, blood) will be collected and therefore the background exposure, the so called current-state, will be defined from a series of measuring results within a defined population and defined area or country. Reference values which are already defined by the commission Human Biomonitoring are available under the following link:
HBM Belgium
In the northern part of Belgium the Flemish biomonitoring pilot project was performed in 1999. In the period of 2001 - 2006 it was continued with the three Flemish biomonitoring campaigns including newborns and their mothers, adolescents as well as older adults. One of the aims is to define reference values as it is already done in Germany.
HBM Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic the Environment Health Monitoring System was realized since 1994. And since 2005 a subgroup of the whole monitoring system focused on the Human Biomonitoring. In different regions (first 4, then it was extend to 8 regions) heavy metals and trace elements were detected in body fluids (blood, urine and in parts in human milk) of different age groups. The annually summary reports of the monitorings are available under the following link:
HBM USA
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published 2009 the fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals
In a series of ongoing assessments more than 200 environmental chemicals or their metabolites are measured in human samples (e.g. urine, blood, serum, breast milk) of 2400 subjects of the U.S. population.
HBM Canada
Recently, Health Canada published the Report on Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals in Canada which provides the results of the human biomonitoring from the first cycle of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS).
This survey involved approximately 5600 subjects between ages of 6 and 79 years. Data were collected between 2007 and 2009 at 15 different sites across the country. The second cycle already started in September 2009 and should be completed 2011.
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