Biomonitoring is an essential occupationalmedical instrument for assessing the exposure of workers to chemical agents. It is, according to the German ordinance for occupational medical prevention (ArbMedVV), an integral part of preventive medical examinations as far as established analytical procedures and values for evaluating biomonitoring results are available. For decades the DFG Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area has reviewed and published analytical procedures for a reliable determination of biomonitoring parameters for exposure assessment of hazardous substances. Moreover the commission has scientifically derived and published values for evaluating biomonitoring results. Those values are health-related values such as the Biological Tolerance Value (BAT) and descriptive values such as the “Biologischer Arbeitsstoff-Referenzwert” (BAR) and Exposure Equivalents for Cancerous Substances (EKA), respectively. Moreover the combination of acceptance values and tolerance values derived by the Committee on Hazardous Substances (AGS) from exposure-risk-relations with the EKA also allow the deduction of risk-related values. Currently there are values for 97 substances and groups of substances, respectively, which were acquired by the DFG senate commission for evaluating biomonitoring results. Most of the values are health-related. Furthermore appropriate analytical procedures for a reliable determination of biomarkers exist for all of these parameters. Therefore, the basic conditions which are required to enable a mandatory offer of biomonitoring examinations to workers with an occupational chemical exposure are fulfilled for many prominent chemical agents.
