By Sandra Basu
Posted: 26-Aug-2004
WASHINGTON-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Journal of Analytical Toxicology collaborated on a special edition of the journal that is devoted to assessing human exposure to chemical agents.
The edition highlights new methods to measure low-level exposure to chemicals, including nerve agents, sulfur mustard agents and cyanide compounds and provides detailed information on animal-exposure and assessing potential human exposure.
"Exposure to chemical agents is a relatively modern concern and the literature base describing methods for detecting exposure is scant," said Dr. John Barr, a CDC research chemist and guest editor of the journal, in a statement. "This research is the most complete compilation of methods and data related to biomonitoring for chemical agents."
According to CDC, the 15 journal articles serve as a preview of new techniques and methods to measure toxic substances that have been developed and are used by the National Biomonitoring Program (NBP), which is part of CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory. NBP specializes in measuring toxic substances or their metabolites in human specimens, such as blood or urine. NBP developed methods to measure about 300 environmental chemicals from two to three tubes of blood and a regular urine sample.
In an event in which chemical agents are used, biomonitoring data provides information about the extent of exposure in a given individual and the extent to which a population is affected by the exposure. The journal describes methods that will be used to identify people who need treatment, those at risk of developing long-term health effects and those who are worried that they may have been exposed to a chemical agent.