Biological monitoring in occupational and environmental toxicology

Recent developments in analytical chemistry improve our ability to characte rise individual exposure to environmental pollutants by measuring their lev els in accessible biological media, down to the nanomolar level even for or ganic compounds. As useful complements for risk assessment, biomarkers of i ndividual susceptibility are being intensively investigated in both cancer and non cancer epidemiology, acknowledging that host factors may not only p lay a key role in multifactorial diseases, but also affect the lower tail o f the dose-response relationship for toxic outcomes. A third promising area of research is the development and validation of biomarkers of early effec t. The use of more quantitative and sensitive end-points could increase our ability to identify toxic responses to chemicals polluting the workplace a nd the general environment. As a whole, these advances are likely to result in a better characterisation of dose-response relationships, a key step to wards effective prevention. This paper provides an overview of the 4th Inte rnational Symposium on Biological Monitoring. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ire land Ltd. All rights reserved.