Contents

• This assignment is based on the following assignment description –
• BACKGROUND:
• Exposure assessment has shifted from pollutant monitoring in air, soil, and water toward personal exposure measurements and biomonitoring. This trend along with the scarcity of health effect data for many of the pollutants studied raises ethical and scientific challenges for reporting results to study participants. Biomonitoring studies can provide information about individual and populationwide exposure to environmental pollutants. However they must be designed in a way that protects the rights and welfare of participants. Biomonitoring study design -- including clear communication about the concerns of at– risk groups such as pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers -- and the manner in which individual results are distributed, can prevent negative impacts of biomonitoring. Adoption of more specific standards for biomonitoring studies and continued study of risk communication issues related to biomonitoring will help protect participants from harm. Translating research to make it more understandable and effective (research translation) has been declared a priority in environmental health but does not always include communication to the public or residents of communities affected by environmental hazards. Their unique perspectives are also commonly missing from discussions about science and technology policy. Public deliberation about communication in personal exposure assessment research suggests that new forms of community-based research ethics and participatory scientific practice are emerging.
• NEWS RELEASE
• AUGUST 16, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
• OTTAWA – TODAY, HEALTH CANADA RELEASED ITS REPORT ON HUMAN BIOMONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS IN CANADA. THIS TECHNICAL REPORT PROVIDES THE RESULTS OF THE BIOMONITORING COMPONENT FROM THE FIRST CYCLE OF THE CANADIAN HEALTH MEASURES SURVEY (CHMS). IT REPRESENTS THE FIRST-EVER COMPREHENSIVE SET OF DATA ON THE EXPOSURE OF THE CANADIAN POPULATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS. "BIOMONITORING INITIATIVES, SUCH AS THE CANADIAN HEALTH MEASURES SURVEY, ARE AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA'S ACTIONS TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF CANADIANS," SAID THE HONOURABLE LEONA AGLUKKAQ, MINISTER OF HEALTH. "FUTURE SURVEYS WILL BUILD ON THE INFORMATION COLLECTED AND ENABLE HEALTH CANADA SCIENTISTS TO BETTER ASSESS WHETHER CANADIANS' EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS IS CHANGING."
• OVERALL, RESULTS FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE SUBSTANCES MEASURED ARE COMPARABLE TO OTHER BIOMONITORING STUDIES THAT HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT INTERNATIONALLY OR IN CANADA. THE CHMS, LED BY STATISTICS CANADA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HEALTH CANADA AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA, IS A NATIONAL SURVEY WHICH COLLECTS INFORMATION RELEVANT TO THE HEALTH OF CANADIANS THROUGH HOME INTERVIEWS AND DIRECT PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS. THE SURVEY PROVIDES INFORMATION ON CHRONIC AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE, PHYSICAL FITNESS, NUTRITION, AND OTHER FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HEALTH. THE BIOMONITORING COMPONENT OF THE CHMS INVOLVES THE COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS OF BLOOD AND URINE SAMPLES TO MEASURE CONCENTRATIONS OF CERTAIN ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS. "THE NATIONAL BIOMONITORING DATA WILL BE USED AS A STARTING POINT FOR FUTURE MONITORING AND RESEARCH,"” SAID DR. PAUL GULLY, HEALTH CANADA'S SPECIAL MEDICAL ADVISOR. "IT WILL IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IN PEOPLE AND HELP WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLICIES TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF CANADIANS." CYCLE 1 OF THE CHMS WAS CONDUCTED BETWEEN 2007 AND 2009, AND INCLUDES A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF APPROXIMATELY 5,600 CANADIANS AGED 6 TO 79 YEARS. THIS IS AN ONGOING SURVEY – CYCLE 2 (2009-2011) IS CURRENTLY BEING IMPLEMENTED, AND PLANNING FOR CYCLE 3 (2012-2014) IS UNDERWAY. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE CHMS, PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES:
• CANADIAN HEALTH MEASURES SURVEY
• OVERVIEW OF THE REPORT ON HUMAN BIOMONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS IN CANADA
• REPORT ON HUMAN BIOMONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS IN CANADA
• ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS:
• 1. Discuss the major scientific challenges facing researchers and public health practitioners, in translating population-based biomonitoring study data (e.g. NHANES, CHMS) into meaningful information about the potential health effects of the chemicals being studied.
• 2. Describe the meaning and importance of the use of the following scientific approaches in interpreting biomonitoring studies, including a specific example from environmental biomonitoring of the use of these approaches: "biomonitoring equivalents" "physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PB-PK) models "cumulative risk assessment" (or cumulative exposure assessment)
• 3. Small-scale biomonitoring studies on a limited non-random study sample have been conducted and published as reports in recent years both in Canada (“Toxic Nation - A Report on Pollution in Canadians”, Environmental Defense Canada 2006) and the United States (Is It In Us? - Chemical Contamination of Our Bodies", Body Burden Work Group 2009). Using these two reports as examples, describe their potential impact on public perceptions regarding the population-wide body burden of environmental pollutants, and discuss the extent to which these types of reports are helpful or misleading for informing public health debates about environmental pollution.
• 4. Using the 2006 Boston Consensus Conference on Human Biomonitoring as a starting point, briefly describe the main concerns about community-based and population-wide biomonitoring studies, and the proposed solutions for addressing the problems of effective research translation and health communication in environmental biomonitoring.
• 5. Describe the appropriate implementation of the "right-to-know" principle as it applies to environmental biomonitoring studies, using a specific example from recent Canadian biomonitoring studies or U.S public health studies.

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