Expanding the role of environmental immunoassays: technical capabilities, regulatory issues, and communication vehicles

Large numbers of samples are commonplace in environmental monitoring and hu man exposure assessment studies. When the goals of the US Environmental Pro tection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (sound methods, int egrated with human and ecological health, common sense approaches, and cost -effective technologies) are coupled with the requirements of these large-s cale studies, the importance of methods like immunoassays is evident. In th is paper, regulatory issues, technical advances, and communication methods are discussed which have contributed to the continued success of immunoassa ys in environmental monitoring and human exposure studies. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.