July 28, 2006
Chancellor's Room, Laurel Heights Conference Center
3333 California Street
San Francisco CA 94143-1200
Uses of Data from Biomonitoring in Environmental Public Health Surveillance and Policy
Rationale
We increasingly recognize the need for effective approaches to reduce the burden of illness associated with environmental factors. New methods and technologies may play a role. In particular, biomonitoring might be used to support individual actions and public policy to improve health or reduce risk of disease. Several groups have identified biomonitoring as a promising approach, including the California Expert Panel on Environmental Health Tracking and the International Forum on Breast Cancer and the Environment.
Discussions of biomonitoring projects are occurring in several venues, including the California Legislature, California health and environmental agencies, states involved in environmental public health tracking, the Western Tracking and Biomonitoring Collaborative, and elsewhere.
Analyses that have been published in the scientific literature have discussed use of biomonitoring data to (1) to assess public health interventions, (2) in environmental health sciences research, and (3) to improve or validate exposure and risk assessment methods. Less has been written about how biomonitoring data can be used to address policy questions.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss how biomonitoring results could be used specifically for environmental public health surveillance and policy. We will also consider how biomonitoring might contribute to a more systematic approach to environmental public health protection.
Discussions of biomonitoring projects are occurring in several venues, including the California Legislature, California health and environmental agencies, states involved in environmental public health tracking, the Western Tracking and Biomonitoring Collaborative, and elsewhere.
Analyses that have been published in the scientific literature have discussed use of biomonitoring data to (1) to assess public health interventions, (2) in environmental health sciences research, and (3) to improve or validate exposure and risk assessment methods. Less has been written about how biomonitoring data can be used to address policy questions.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss how biomonitoring results could be used specifically for environmental public health surveillance and policy. We will also consider how biomonitoring might contribute to a more systematic approach to environmental public health protection.
Meeting Objectives
- To consider and discuss at a conceptual level the array of ways that biomonitoring results could be used in environmental public health surveillance and policy (not limited to use in risk assessment) and to examine policy relevant questions that may be of interest to stakeholders;
- To consider experiences in use of biomonitoring data for surveillance and policy in occupational health and their application to environmental public health more broadly;
- To review case studies that look at whether specific biomonitoring projects answer questions relevant to surveillance and policy and that identify characteristics of biomonitoring projects that make it possible to answer such questions;
- To discuss possible future directions in biomonitoring with the use of “omics” methods (genomics, proteomics, etc);
- To identify next steps and additional directions to pursue in the future;
- To provide an opportunity for discussion and reflection among different sectors involved in environmental public health policy including academic, government, and non-governmental sectors.
Participants
- Cynthia Babich, Del Amo Action Committee
- John Balmes, University of California, San Francisco
- Davis Baltz, Commonweal
- Janice Barlow, Marin Breast Cancer Watch
- Claire Brindis, University of California, San Francisco
- Michael DiBartolomeis, California Department of Health Services
- William Draper, California Department of Health Services
- Michael Endicott, Tres Amigos Verdes
- Paul English, California Department of Health Services
- Kim Harley, University of California, Berkeley
- Kim Hooper, California Environmental Protection Agency
- Bruce Jennings, Senate Environmental Quality Committee
- Sarah Jewell, University of California, San Francisco
- Mary Kreger, University of California, San Francisco
- Amy Kyle, University of California, Berkeley
- Gretchen Lee, The Breast Cancer Fund
- Phil Lee, University of California, San Francisco and Stanford
- Michael Lipsett, California Department of Health Services
- Geoff Lomax, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
- Sonya Lunder, Environmental Working Group
- Kevin Marsee, University of California, Berkeley
- Melanie Marty, California Environmental Protection Agency
- Mark Miller, California Environmental Protection Agency
- Janet Nudelman, The Breast Cancer Fund
- Sharyle Patton, Commonweal
- Shankar Prasad, California Environmental Protection Agency
- Stephen Rappaport, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and University of California, Berkeley
- Joan Reiss, The Breast Cancer Fund
- Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, University of California, Berkeley
- Theodora Sakata, University of California, San Francisco
- Martha Sandy, California Environmental Protection Agency
- Mitzi Shpak, Action Now
- Martyn Smith, University of California, Berkeley
- Gina Solomon, Natural Resources Defense Council
- Katie Stewart, US Environmental Protection Agency
- Rebecca Sutton, Environmental Working Group
- Brynn Taylor, The Breast Cancer Fund
- Catherine Thomsen, Oregon Department of Health
- Jim Vanderslice, Washington State Department of Health
- Winona Victery, US Environmental Protection Agency
- Michele Wilhelm, University of California, Los Angeles
- Gail Windham, Department of Health Services
- Tracey Woodruff, US Environmental Protection Agency
Acknowledgements
John R. Balmes, MD, Principal Investigator, Berkeley Center for Environmental Public Health Tracking.
Martyn T. Smith, PhD, Principal Investigator, Berkeley Superfund Basic Research Program.
Richard Jackson, MD, previously director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then Public Health Director for the State of California, and now adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, who has generously provided analyses and insights and whom we consider to be an honorary participant.
For materials and information: Janice Barlow, who provided extensive background from the community forum on biomonitoring hosted by her organization in 2004, William Draper; Michael DiBartolomeis, Davis Baltz, Thomas E. McKone, and Sonya Lunder.
For suggestions regarding the organization and format of the workshop: Joan Reinhardt Reiss, Michael DiBartolomeis, Gina Solomon, and Shankar Prasad.
For taking care of the meeting logistics: Michael Murphy and Margaret Nguyen.
Support for this work was provided by the Superfund Basic Research Program at the University of California Berkeley, Martyn T. Smith, Principal Investigator, Grant No. P42 ES04705 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and by the Berkeley Center for Environmental Public Health Tracking, John R. Balmes, Principal Investigator, Cooperative Agreement Number U50/CCU922409 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Martyn T. Smith, PhD, Principal Investigator, Berkeley Superfund Basic Research Program.
Richard Jackson, MD, previously director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then Public Health Director for the State of California, and now adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, who has generously provided analyses and insights and whom we consider to be an honorary participant.
For materials and information: Janice Barlow, who provided extensive background from the community forum on biomonitoring hosted by her organization in 2004, William Draper; Michael DiBartolomeis, Davis Baltz, Thomas E. McKone, and Sonya Lunder.
For suggestions regarding the organization and format of the workshop: Joan Reinhardt Reiss, Michael DiBartolomeis, Gina Solomon, and Shankar Prasad.
For taking care of the meeting logistics: Michael Murphy and Margaret Nguyen.
Support for this work was provided by the Superfund Basic Research Program at the University of California Berkeley, Martyn T. Smith, Principal Investigator, Grant No. P42 ES04705 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and by the Berkeley Center for Environmental Public Health Tracking, John R. Balmes, Principal Investigator, Cooperative Agreement Number U50/CCU922409 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.