Significantly lower levels of mercury and lead, more plasticisers | Umweltbundesamt

President Maria Krautzberger of the German Environment Agency said: "The 'classic' chemicals – lead, mercury, cadmium, DDT and PCB – have been reduced significantly in Germany. What we now worry about, however, is the high level of children's exposure to certain plasticisers being used on a broad basis in the production of plastics, where chemicals about which too little is known are involved, often as a substitute for chemicals which have been prohibited in the meantime."

Mr Flasbarth emphasised: "Human biomonitoring data must also make a contribution to European chemicals policy. We need more cooperation at international level to ensure this occurs in a precautionary and systematic way. The EU Commission has taken the initiative in this respect, but we must also network our data and initiatives beyond the borders of the EU, because chemicals are used everywhere in the world."

Experts from 35 countries will be discussing the problems and successes of longstanding HBM programmes at the two-day "Human Biomonitoring - Science and Policy for a healthy future" conference. HBM policy strategy aspects and HBM's place in chemicals policy will be examined in two panel discussions. The conference is being organised by the Federal Ministry for Environment and the German Environment Agency.

HBM is a key information and monitoring instrument for health-related environmental protection. HBM studies deliver the scientific data necessary for making environmental policy decisions, for example on chemicals in the human organism, on population groups with particularly high levels of exposure and on the effects of the regulation of chemicals. The data can be used to evaluate the population's level of protection and to identify any further need for action.