BANKING OF HUMAN TISSUE FOR BIOMONITORING AND EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT - UTILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND SURVEILLANCE

Human tissue banking could provide a tool to address a number of publi c health concerns. We can potentially use it to monitor trends in huma n exposures, serve as an early warning system for new environmental ex posures, assess low-level exposures around hazardous waste acid other point sources of pollutants, evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory programs, and study etiologies of diseases (e.g., childhood cancer and birth defects) that are likely to be related to the environment. This article discusses opportunities to establish human tissue banks in co nnection with preexisting public health surveillance programs for canc er and adverse reproductive outcomes. This is a cost-effective way to conduct surveillance and enhances the ability to carry out epidemiolog ic studies. The article also discusses ethical issues that are particu larly important for public health practice. One is the issue of risk c ommunication and the need to explain risks in a way that provides peop le with the information they need to determine appropriate action on t he individual and community levels. Second is the issue of environment al justice. We recommend early involvement of communities that are lik ely to be involved in tissue-banking projects and full explanation of individual and group social risks from their participation.