Public Health Needs for Exposure Assessment and its Realization in Germany

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Abstract
In 1995, the Committee for Environmental Hygiene of the German State Ministers of Health released a report entitled “Exposure Assessment Standards.” To respond to public needs of communicating potential environmental health risks, the report is divided into two parts. The methodological chapter addresses several key issues in the field of exposure assessment, such as variability and uncertainty of environmental and human data, the effects of typical versus worst-case scenarios and of point estimates versus probabilistic density functions, and the hidden safety of cumulative models. Based on these prerequisites and limitations, the report describes the underlying studies from which recommendations for exposure factors are derived. Regarding soil contamination, regulatory consequences remain questionable. Because assumptions about soil intake by children are still based on very limited data and even the source (house dust or soil) is not well defined, the basis for regulatory efforts is unsatisfactory. Whenever feasible, human biomonitoring should be used to validate exposure assessment.

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