The lack of a tool that provides systematic guidance on best practices for environmental epidemiological research is an important limitation to regulatory decisions which rely on population-based studies. WOE assessments based on environmental epidemiology selleckchem data are unique because, unlike other areas of research, experimental studies designed to elicit an adverse outcome in humans are rarely, if ever, ethically possible. Thus, environmental epidemiology studies are almost always observational and are subject to unavoidable uncertainty stemming from various sources. An important

source of uncertainty in environmental epidemiology, but also an area of rapid progress, relates to exposure science. Exposure assessment is a major determinant of the overall data quality in any environmental epidemiology study (Hertz-Picciotto, 1998), including chemicals with short physiologic half lives. Short-lived chemicals are those for which the time required to eliminate one-half of the chemical mass from the body or

from a given matrix is on the order of minutes to hours or days. The quality of the exposure assessment for short-lived chemicals is intimately tied to the data’s utility in assessing associations SRT1720 mouse with health outcomes as well as to studies using biomonitoring to examine various aspects of exposure. In recent years, exposure science methods have particularly benefited from improvements in the ability to detect environmental chemicals through biomonitoring. Biomonitoring is the measurement of chemicals in various human matrices such as blood, urine, breath, milk and hair. Biomonitoring data integrate exposure from all routes (oral, inhalation, dermal, trans-placental) and are valuable for: (1) establishing population reference ranges; (2) identifying unusual exposures for subpopulations; (3) evaluating temporal variability

and trends within a population; (4) validating questions designed to estimate individual exposure; and (5) examining associations with health outcomes in epidemiologic studies. Epidemiologic research with biomonitoring as the basis for measuring exposure for persistent organic pollutants and metals has been conducted for decades. By contrast, biomonitoring of ubiquitous chemicals with short physiologic half-lives Selleck Gemcitabine (e.g., benzene, phthalates, certain pesticides) began relatively recently, and these chemicals present several new challenges as interpretation of data on these chemicals is complicated by variability in exposure and the ubiquitous nature of many of these chemicals, including in analytical laboratories and sampling equipment. These chemicals also present challenges when selecting the matrix to be used in the research. To date, the scientific community has not developed a set of systematic guidelines for implementing and interpreting biomonitoring studies of these chemicals.