1. Flemish human biomonitoring campaign Environmental health Monitoring for action… 2002-2006

2. Outline of the presentation  Goals of the study: G. Schoeters – VITO  Study design : L. Bruckers – University of Hasselt  Results : E. Den Hond – VITO  Further perspectives : G. Schoeters- VITO

3. Flanders ‘fields’ FlandersEU Inhabitants/km 2 (‘98) 446116 private cars/km 2 (’00) 20552 km motorways/100 km 2 (’99) 472108

4. Goals Goals  Develop a surveillance program for environmental health → policy support  Identify “base line values” or “reference values” for environmental pollutants in the Flemish population  Has the area of residence an impact on the internal pollutant levels and potential biological effects?  Early signaling of environmental health risks ?

5. The causal chain: from exposure to effect air dust soil water Consumer products Blood Urine Hair Saliva Exhaled breath polluant levels in biomarkers of exposure Environmental monitoring biomarkers of effects Growth Hormone levels DNAdamage Immunological markers a dverse health effects Asthma Fertility Cancer Death changes in

6. Choices to be made   Pollutants ?   Sampling areas ?   Populations?   Effect parameters?

7. Selection of pollutants with well known health effects  POPs  Dioxin – like compounds  PCB 138, 153,180  Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)  DDE (DDT metabolite)  Heavy metals : cadmium, lead  Volatile organic compounds : metabolites of benzene (tt muconic acid) and PAHs (1-hydroxypyrene)

8. Study areas  8 study areas in Flanders with typical and different environmental load: 1.Conurbation of Antwerp 2.Conurbation of Gent IRCEL environmental monitoring network 3.Seaport of Antwerp and Gent 4.Rural area population density <250persons/km 2, < 5% industry, no motorways, no data in emission register, motorways, no data in emission register, 1.Fruit Region apple+fruit: > 10 ha/km 2 2.Incinerators SS with smoke emission > 1.20 mg /m 3 3.Olen (Non Ferro) SS with lead emission > 0.9ng / m 3 (> Olen) 4.Albertcanal (Petrochemica) SS with emision of a fictive pollutants> Eindhout

9. North Sea The Netherlands Brussels Representing: 3.055 km² (22% of Flanders) 65 municipalities (21% of Flanders) 1.186.165 inhabitants (20% of Flanders)

10. Study areas

11. Selection of population  Flemish biomonitoring campaign  2002-2006  3 age groups Cancer risk Growth & Development Asthma & allergy Growth & Development Asthma & allergy

13. Integration of two activities  2 Main types of HBM activities  SURVEILLANCE : produce information on the prevalence of exposure to environmental agents and the related public health impact with a view to developing and evaluating policies that protect health  RESEARCH projects: activities that aim at improvement of knowledge on causal links between environmental factors and health by hypothesis generation and testing

14. Multidisciplinar team operating via a fieldwork committee VITO PIH VUB UG KUL UH UA coördination fieldwork toxicology Foodintake Health registers Statistical analysis. Biomonitoring Impact assessment http://www.milieu-en-gezondheid.be communication

15. HBM a participatory process based on transparency and openess  Approval by ethical and privacy commission  Communication of individual results to the participants  Communication of collective results to participants,  policy makers, local authorities and large public  Information network including MMKs  BIOMONITOR newsletters  Web site http://www.milieu-en-gezondheid.be