Assessing developmental toxicant exposures via biomonitoring.

Most of the developmental effects that populations experience are believed to be linked with their exposure scenario and/or their susceptibility to these exposures. In environmental public health, most studies have focused on exposures to environmental chemicals but certainly other environmental factors and susceptibility factors must be considered. Our laboratory assesses exposure to environmental chemicals by measuring the chemical, its metabolite(s) or chemical adduct(s) in a biological matrix taken from members of the populations of interest (via biomonitoring). To help interpret data from the many uses of biomonitoring and for other purposes in public health, we have determined, and made public, data on the concentrations of environmental chemicals in the general population of the USA. Exposures at critical time periods of development to many of these chemicals have been linked with adverse developmental effects. In this paper, we examine this linkage using several chemicals as examples and providing biomonitoring information for these chemicals in the US population as a whole but also at various life stages.