Elaborating exposure reference values from the French national human biomonitoring program

摘要

The French human biomonitoring program has started in 2010 in order to provide a representative estimation of the French population's exposure to multiple environmental contaminants. It currently consists in two national surveys: a perinatal component including 4145 pregnant women from the Elfe cohort (French Longitudinal Study since Childhood) and a general population survey (Esteban) including 3021 adults (18-74 years) and 1355 children (6-17 years). These surveys provide a particularly good material to produce exposure reference values (ERV) to describe the ranges of environmental contaminants among the national population. ERV are a useful tool for public health actors who need to compare individual or population's level of exposure to a reference population in order to reduce highest exposures to toxic substances. Sante publique France, the French national public health agency, defines a national strategy to derive ERV following the recommendations of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and other international experts. This strategy is based on the use of the 95th percentile as the ERV for the measured pollutant concentration levels in the relevant matrix. Age, sex and body mass index are used as partitioning criteria to derivate separate ERV for sub-group population when it seems relevant. A first step will take place in 2017 when ERV will be derived for French pregnant women for metals, organophosphorus and organochlorine compounds, pyrethroids, bisphenol A and phthalates. In a second step, in 2018, ERV will be derived for French adults and children included in the Esteban survey for more than a hundred environmental pollutants. Beyond the help that these ERV will provide to public health actors in France, their production under a harmonized procedure will allow international comparisons on levels of exposure for environmental pollutants and help public health policies to set a target in the reduction of exposure at national scale.