Published May 15, 2019 | Version 2.0
Project deliverable Open

Report on opportunities and obstacles of combining HBM and health studies, availability of health studies with biological samples, availability of administrative registers, and guidelines for combining HBM and health studies. Deliverable Report D 11.3

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland
  • 2. The Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 3. Azienda Sataria Locale Roma, Italy
  • 4. ISS, Italy
  • 5. Umeå University, Sweden
  • 6. Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  • 7. Syddansk Universitet, Denmark
  • 8. Sciensano, Belgium
  • 9. National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Portugal
  • 10. Ustav Zdravotnickych Informaci a Statistiky Ceske Republiky, Czech Republic
  • 11. Faculdade de Medicina Lisboa, Portugal
  • 12. University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 13. VITO, Belgium
  • 14. Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zür Foerderung der Angewandten Forschunge E.G., Germany
  • 15. Ustav Zdravotnickyck Informaci a Statistiky Ceske Republiky, Czech Republic
  • 16. Hellenic Health Foundation, Greece
  • 17. Norwegian National Institute for Public Health, Norway
  • 18. Medizinsche Universitaet Wien, Austria
  • 19. Santé Publique France, France
  • 20. Utrecht University, Netherlands
  • 21. Umeå Univeristy, Sweden

Description

The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) is a joint effort of 28 countries (24 European Member States, three associated countries and Switzerland), the European Environment Agency and the European Commission, co-funded under  Horizon 2020.


The main objective of HBM4EU is to use Human Biomonitoring (HBM) to assess human exposure to chemicals in Europe in order to better understand the associated health impacts and to improve chemical risk assessment. HBM4EU will generate knowledge on chemical exposure levels in the population and their health effects.

In parallel to HBM studies, health examination surveys (HES) are conducted in many European countries. HES are surveys where information collected by questionnaire(s) is complemented with information obtained by physical measurements such as blood pressure and anthropometric measurements, and by analysis of biomarkers from biological samples. The European Health
Examination Survey (EHES) was established in 2010 to coordinate the development of national HESs in Europe. Between 2000 and 2017, 15 European countries have conducted a national HES and in many countries smaller, regional or disease specific surveys have been carried out.

Since for both HBM studies and HESs, data is collected through fieldwork, which is one of the largest expenses for such studies and needed infrastructures are very similar, the potential to combine these two types of studies has been considered. This could result in more cost-effective ways to conduct health and environmental monitoring. In some countries, such as Germany, Israel
and France, this combination has already been done at national or regional level.


Human Biomonitoring and health studies have a lot of similarities in terms of the infrastructure and procedures required for their implementation. However, in practice, the opportunity for adding a HBM module to an ongoing/planned health study (and vice versa) is rarely used. Reasons for this may be multifarious and may differ from country to country, and between different study settings.
This report will look at different aspects related to combining HBM and health studies, together with possibilities for mortality and morbidity follow-up through linkage to administrative registers. This report will also provide information about identified and possible health effects related to the chemical exposures and how to directly measure those health effects. WP14 has worked in more
detail on effect biomarkers for different health effects.3 Therefore, this report has four main parts:

  • Part A. Opportunities and obstacles of combining HBM and health studies
  • Part B. Availability of administrative registers and possibilities for their use in HBM studies
  • Part C. Measuring potential health effects of the priority substances
  • Part D. SOPs for selected health measurements.

Files

HBM4EU_D11.3_Opportunities_obstacles_of_combining_HBM_and_health_studies_v2.0.pdf

Files (3.1 MB)

Additional details

Funding

European Commission
HBM4EU - European Human Biomonitoring Initiative 733032