The working group for occupational-medical toxicology is concerned with various aspects of exposure monitoring.
The research area “biomonitoring and metabolism research” investigates the metabolism of hazardous substances in order to clarify metabolic pathways in humans and to ascertain new parameters for human biomonitoring. These specific parameters, which are determined in urine or in blood, then serve to sensitively measure the internal exposure of workers and people from the general population to certain hazardous substances. As such, the development and validation of analytical methods for new biomonitoring parameters is a significant area of focus for this working group. The validated methods are applied as part of population studies and field studies as well as in routine analysis, and comprise the foundation for exposure assessment and the toxicological evaluation of exposure in the field of occupational medicine.
Skin monitoring enables the representative measurement of dermal exposure and yields valuable data on skin as an exposure pathway, such that – together with air-monitoring and biomonitoring data – it contributes to a complete picture of the exposure situation in question.