National Report on Human Exposure

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2001). National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Atlanta, Georgia. 

Centers for Disease Control. (2001) National Report on Human Exposures to Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC, Department of Health and Human Services. 

The ability to generate new biomonitoring data often exceeds the ability to evaluate whether and how a chemical measured in an individual or population may cause a health risk or to evaluate its sources and pathways for exposure. As CDC states in its National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, the presence of a chemical in a blood or urine specimen does not mean that the chemical causes a health risk or disease. The challenge for public-health officials is to understand the health implications of the biomonitoring data, to provide the public with appropriate information, and to craft appropriate public-health policy responses. 

The National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, produced by CDC, is based on a representative sample of the population and a large number of chemicals, and uses well-documented analytic techniques. However, not all biomonitoring studies are conducted with the... 

This report focuses primarily on biomonitoring as used in population-based studies, such as CDC s national reports on human exposure or EPA s NHEXAS, because they raise the most far-reaching and challenging questions regarding the interpretation of biomonitoring data. The population-... 

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). 2003. Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA [online]. Available http //www.jhsph.edu/ephtcenter/Second%20Report.pdf [accessed Nov. 16, 2005]. 

CDC has been a major player in funding both state and national biomonitoring programs. NHANES and the National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals have provided regulators with a comprehensive overview of exposures in the general population to selected chemicals. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals Provides continuing assessment of U.S. population s exposure to environmental chemicals using biomonitoring data from NHANES. First National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (First Report) was issued in March 2001. Second Report, released in January 2003, presents biomonitoring exposure data on 116 environmental chemicals for noninstitutionalized, civilian U.S. population in 1999-2000. Third report was released in July 2005 and includes data on 148 chemicals (CDC 2005). 

Since the 1960s, NHANES has been monitoring nutritional and clinical factors in the U.S. population chemicals in blood and urine were included recently. In addition, CDC s National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, based on NHANES data, have been influential in setting priorities for future biomonitoring research (Schober 2005). 

National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals... 

The first National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals was initially released in 2001 and is based on analyses of NHANES biomonitoring data on exposure to chemicals. The data have various uses to determine which chemicals people are exposed to and at what concentrations to establish reference ranges for assessing whether an individual or group has an unusually high exposure, including susceptible populations, such as children, the elderly, and women of childbearing age to track exposure trends to assess the effectiveness of public-health efforts to reduce exposure of Americans to specific chemicals and to set priorities for research on human health effects (CDC 2005). 

The criteria for including chemicals in the National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals include the following considerations ... 

CDC is developing formal criteria for delisting chemicals from the National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, which it plans to publish in the Federal Register. Delisting criteria will consider whether there has been a change in the concentration of a chemical if not, the chemical may be delisted (Pirkle 2005). 

Despite those limitations, the National Reports on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals are the most comprehensive available summaries of biomonitoring data on a representative sample of the U.S. population. The data provide reference ranges for numerous chemicals and will include, in future reports, data on chemicals which have recently become available,... 

It can assess risks posed by multiple exposures. Large-scale biomonitoring studies illustrate the need for developing cumulative risk-assessment approaches for biomonitoring data because exposures are typically to mixtures rather than to single toxicants. An examination of the Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, for example,... 

CDC (2003b) Second national report on human exposure to environmental chemicals. Atlanta, GA, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

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