• Project number: F 2485
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Ongoing Project
• Planned end: 2025-12-31

Description:

In the field of chemical and occupational safety, the knowledge of the general populations' background exposure to hazardous substances is essential to evaluate additional demand for regulation. In recent years, numerous metals, metalloids and their compounds have been proposed as substances of very high concern due to their hazardous properties (e.g. carcinogenic). In this project, the general populations' background exposure to metal and metalloids is examined with biological monitoring. Metal and metalloids are determined in blood and urine samples representative for the population living in Germany. The results are used to derive biomonitoring reference values that furthermore allow the comparison of the exposure of individuals with the background exposure.