In an article published on March 19, 2019 by non-governmental organization ChemTrust, author Ninja Reineke reported on recent outcomes of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU). The article highlighted a focus the initiative has placed on bisphenols and phthalates. A stakeholder workshop in November 2018 discussed the policy-uptake of HBM4EU data specifically covering these two chemical groups. Presentations included an “overview on hazards, exposures and policy context of bisphenols and phthalates” by the European Environment Agency as well as a presentation by the German Environment Agency, which “illustrated that while trends are going down following regulation of some phthalates, the detection frequency remains high.” In addition, “there were signs of rising exposure trends for some newer compounds, e.g. for DEHTP [di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate; CAS 6422-86-2], DPHP [di-2-propylheptyl phthalate; CAS 53306-54-0] and DINCH [1,2-cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester; CAS 474919-59-0].”

ChemTrust sees the HBM4EU initiative as “very important” and thinks it “can help to generate biomonitoring data that can be used to close policy gaps now, and avoid further contamination of our bodies in the future.” Launched in 2017 (FPF reported), the HBM4EU is a joint collaboration involving 28 EU countries that “is generating evidence of the actual exposure of citizens to chemicals and the possible health effects in order to support policy making.” Stakeholders were invited to help prioritize chemicals to be monitored during the initiative (FPF reported), and the HBM4EU initiative itself is set to run until 2021.

Read more

Ninja Reineke (March 19, 2019). “Synthetic chemicals in our bodies: what is our ‘body burden’?ChemTrust

HBM4EU (November 2018). “8-9 November – Workshop with EU policy makers and stakeholders on policy uptake of HBM-data, the case of phthalates and bisphenols.

HBM4EU (March 2019). “About HBM4EU.

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