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Biomonitoring and Nonpersistent Chemicals—Understanding and Addressing Variability and Exposure Misclassification

  • Methods in Environmental Epidemiology (AZ Pollack and NJ Perkins, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

We offer here a review of intraindividual variability in urinary biomarkers for assessing exposure to nonpersistent chemicals. We provide thoughts on how to better evaluate exposure to nonpersistent chemicals.

Recent Findings

We summarized reported values of intraclass correlation coefficients and found that most values fall into categories that indicate only poor to good reproducibility. Even within the “good” classification, a large percentage of study participants is likely to be misclassified as to their exposure.

Summary

There is sufficient information to support the statement that studies using only one spot measurement of a nonpersistent chemical will be unreliable. It is unequivocal that multiple samples have to be collected over a period of toxicological relevance and with consideration of exposure patterns. Sponsors of research and researchers themselves should be vocal about ensuring that sufficient resources are made available to properly characterize exposures when studying nonpersistent chemicals. Otherwise, we will continue to see an ever-growing body of literature yielding inconsistent and/or uninterpretable results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LaKind Associates, LLC, 106 Oakdale Ave, Catonsville, MD, 21228, USA

    Judy S. LaKind

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Judy S. LaKind

  3. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    Fadwa Idri & Marc-André Verner

  4. Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Daniel Q. Naiman

  5. Université de Montréal Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

    Marc-André Verner

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  1. Judy S. LaKind
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  2. Fadwa Idri
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  4. Marc-André Verner
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Correspondence to Marc-André Verner.

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LaKind, J.S., Idri, F., Naiman, D.Q. et al. Biomonitoring and Nonpersistent Chemicals—Understanding and Addressing Variability and Exposure Misclassification. Curr Envir Health Rpt 6, 16–21 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-019-0227-2

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