Biological Monitoring Committee
The mission of the committee is:
To provide a forum for advancing the use of biological monitoring to evaluate exposure.
Goals and Objectives
Goal: Assemble, evaluate, and disseminate to occupational and environmental health professionals information relevant to the uses of biological media to evaluate exposures.
Objective #1: Promote the detection, quantification, evaluation, and monitoring of occupational exposures to chemical, biological, and physical agents through analysis of biological media such as blood, urine, breath, hair, sweat, nails, feces, and sputum.
Strategies:
- Designate specific members to track and report on identified issues.
- Prepare for publication information relevant to industrial exposures, adverse effects, routes of entry, absorption, distribution, biotransformation and elimination, normal and abnormal values, and correlation with exposure levels.
Goal: Actively participate in identifying and responding to biological monitoring issues.
Objective #2: Identify, evaluate, and comment on legislation, regulations, and guidelines involving human biological monitoring.
Strategies:
- Monitor rulemaking organizations.
- Participate, when asked, in the development of guidelines by other organizations, such as the Biological Exposure Indices Committee of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
- Develop and recommend positions to the AIHA Board.
Biological Monitoring: A Practical Field Manual
The Biological Monitoring Committee prepared Biological Monitoring: A Practical Field Manual as a guide and reference for entry level industrial hygienists and occupational health specialists. The committee tried to address many of the major issues according to the perspective of the industrial hygienist with as little technical content as possible at a level also appropriate for students studying for bachelor or science degrees.
This guide, along with the most current methods for specific biological monitoring protocols and more theoretical texts, will enable the practicing professional to further excel in the conduct of good science in the field.