Using Human Biomonitoring data to quantify the burden of disease due to environmental risk factors in children and adolescents - the UKAGEP project

Abstract

Human Biomonitoring (HBM) data are a rich source to estimate the population exposure towards several environmentalhazards. These data can further serve as the basis to quantify the environmental burden of disease (EBD). Here,health effects are assessed by using summary measures of population health which can be of additional value to inform policy-makers about the major environmental risk factors causing ill-health. However, national up-to-date EBD estimates are currentlynot available for Germany. Therefore it is planned to fill this gap by a research project, called UKAGEP. This project aimsat estimating the EBD of 16 risk factors for children aged between 3 and 17 years in Germany. Methods: The UKAGEP projectuses the EBD methodology and its core measure, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Current HBM data derived in the population-representative German Environmental Survey (GerES 2014-2017) are used to estimate the internal exposure of Germanchildren for eight hazards (e. g. lead in blood, arsenic in urine, endocrine disruptors in urine). Combined with exposure-responsefunctions, which are derived or updated by meta-analysis, and data on the related health effects, DALYs will be calculated. Totake into account long lag periods between exposure and effect and the cumulative chronic effects of stressors probabilisticmodeling will be performed which also includes estimates of the future burden. Expected results: The concentration of mostenvironmental hazards is expected to be rather low. However, some of the stressors might still pose a considerable threat onthe population level, especially if both, effects of mortality and morbidity are reflected in the summary measure of populationhealth. Furthermore the project updates the scientific evidence on adverse health effects of the stressors in a qualitative andquantitative way (DALYs). Conclusions: Though the UKAGEP study was just recently launched, we expect new insights in theEBD of children in Germany. High quality HBM data from the new GerES-study will inform the models and help to identify themajor drivers of EBD.In: 2nd International Conference onHuman Biomonitoring, Berlin 2016: Science and policy for a healthy future; April 17 - 19, 2016 Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus Berlin, Germany / Deutschland. Umweltbundesamt. Berlin: 2016, S. 100