222d - Good practice for the interpretation of human biomonitoring data

Abstract Human biomonitoring data of exposures to chemicals require appropriate interpretations of the results, ideally from a health risk point of view. As the field of human biomonitoring grows, there are many different biological guidance values that are derived by various authorities (official bodies or non-profit organisations) to interpret these results. Guidance values can be largely grouped by health-based guidance values and non-health-based guidance values. Health-based guidance values correspond to biomarker concentrations that are not anticipated to be harmful to health. They are either directly based on the association between biomarkers and health risks or indirectly based on the association between airborne levels and biomarkers, and specifically at airborne levels that are considered safe for human health. Non-health-based guidance values are, for example, descriptive statistical values, such as reference values that correspond to biomarker concentrations at the upper end of background exposures of populations without known occupational exposures to the chemical in question. These levels, although not related to health risks, are highly useful to interpret occupational exposures and hygienic measures. In addition, there are two other concepts of non-health-based guidance values that can be utilised, which is guidance values based on good-occupational-hygiene-practice and exposure equivalents for carcinogenic agents. The latter provides a relationship between airborne concentrations of the carcinogen and correlating biomarker concentrations. Finally, practical approaches for the interpretation of human biomonitoring data where no guidance values are available will be presented, including the calculation of daily intakes for comparison with oral threshold values (such as TDI or ADI).