Public Health Needs for Exposure Assessment and its Realization in Germany

Abstract

In 1995, the Committee for Environmental Hygiene of the German State Ministers of Health released a report entitled “Exposure Assessment Standards.” To respond to public needs of communicating potential environmental health risks, the report is divided into two parts. The methodological chapter addresses several key issues in the field of exposure assessment, such as variability and uncertainty of environmental and human data, the effects of typical versus worst-case scenarios and of point estimates versus probabilistic density functions, and the hidden safety of cumulative models. Based on these prerequisites and limitations, the report describes the underlying studies from which recommendations for exposure factors are derived. Regarding soil contamination, regulatory consequences remain questionable. Because assumptions about soil intake by children are still based on very limited data and even the source (house dust or soil) is not well defined, the basis for regulatory efforts is unsatisfactory. Whenever feasible, human biomonitoring should be used to validate exposure assessment.

Occurrence of Toxigenic Aspergillus versicolor Isolates and Sterigmatocystin in Carpet Dust from Damp Indoor Environments

“…For toddlers and preschool children, the target group of most concern, an oral uptake of 20 to 100 mg of house dust and an inhalative uptake of 0.5 mg of aerosolized dust per day are assumed as standard levels in Germany (38). In our investigation, both the proportion of sterigmatocystin-positive carpet dust samples from damp homes and the concentrations of sterigmatocystin in carpet dust were low, the latter being in the range of Ͻ10 ng/g of dust.…”