ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the assessment of human exposure to chemicals mainly relies on environmental monitoring. The latter evaluates the potential exposure, i.e., the amount of chemicals likely to reach the respiratory tract or to be absorbed by the organism depending on several factors such as the physicochemical properties of the substance, the hygiene habits of the worker, or some biological factors (e.g., age, sex, ventilatory parameters). Studies on the fate of chemicals in the human organism and on their biological effects have led to various methods for exposure monitoring grouped under the name biological monitoring of exposure. The main advantage of this approach is to provide, for chemicals acting systematically, a better assessment of health risk than the environmental measurements. The objective of this chapter is to review the available biological methods and their main applications in the field of occupational and environmental medicine.
