title: Mercury analysis in hair: Comparability and quality assessment within the transnational COPHES/DEMOCOPHES project.
abstract: Human biomonitoring (HBM) is an effective tool for assessing actual exposure to chemicals that takes into account all routes of intake. Although hair analysis is considered to be an optimal biomarker for assessing mercury exposure, the lack of harmonization as regards sampling and analytical procedures has often limited the comparison of data at national and international level. The European-funded projects COPHES and DEMOCOPHES developed and tested a harmonized European approach to Human Biomonitoring in response to the European Environment and Health Action Plan. Herein we describe the quality assurance program (QAP) for assessing mercury levels in hair samples from more than 1800 mother-child pairs recruited in 17 European countries. To ensure the comparability of the results, standard operating procedures (SOPs) for sampling and for mercury analysis were drafted and distributed to participating laboratories. Training sessions were organized for field workers and four external quality-assessment exercises (ICI/EQUAS), followed by the corresponding web conferences, were organized between March 2011 and February 2012. ICI/EQUAS used native hair samples at two mercury concentration ranges (0.20-0.71 and 0.80-1.63) per exercise. The results revealed relative standard deviations of 7.87-13.55% and 4.04-11.31% for the low and high mercury concentration ranges, respectively. A total of 16 out of 18 participating laboratories the QAP requirements and were allowed to analyze samples from the DEMOCOPHES pilot study. Web conferences after each ICI/EQUAS revealed this to be a new and effective tool for improving analytical performance and increasing capacity building. The procedure developed and tested in COPHES/DEMOCOPHES would be optimal for application on a global scale as regards implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Toxicology, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental (CNSA), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance - Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum (IPA), Germany; PROOF-ACS GmbH, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Birgit Karin
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Schindler
authors.affiliation: Environmental Toxicology, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental (CNSA), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain.
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance - Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum (IPA), Germany.
authors.forename: Holger Martin
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance - Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum (IPA), Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Angerer
authors.affiliation: Environmental Toxicology, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental (CNSA), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain.
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosado
authors.affiliation: Environmental Toxicology, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental (CNSA), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ludwine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Casteleyn
authors.affiliation: Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany.
authors.forename: Marike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kolossa-Gehring
authors.affiliation: Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Environmental Health Sciences International, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bloemen
authors.affiliation: Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Environmental Risk and Health, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium; University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
authors.forename: Greet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schoeters
authors.affiliation: Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Environmental Risk and Health, Belgium.
authors.forename: Elly
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Den Hond
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ovnair
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sepai
authors.affiliation: Public Health England, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Exley
authors.affiliation: Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horvat
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lisbeth E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Knudsen
authors.affiliation: BiPRO GmbH, Germany.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Joas
authors.affiliation: BiPRO GmbH, Germany.
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Joas
authors.affiliation: Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aerts
authors.affiliation: Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biot
authors.affiliation: Regional Authority of Public Health of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borošová
authors.affiliation: Cork Public Analyst's Laboratory, Ireland.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.affiliation: Environmental Health Centre, Romania.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dumitrascu
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire National de Santé, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Marc E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
authors.forename: Margaretha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grander
authors.affiliation: Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland.
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Janasik
authors.affiliation: Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), UK.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Public Health, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kašparová
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway.
authors.forename: Thorjørn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Larssen
authors.affiliation: Hungarian Institute of Occupational Health, Hungary.
authors.forename: Miklos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naray
authors.affiliation: University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
authors.forename: Flemming
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Austria.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hohenblum
authors.affiliation: SGPS, S.A., Portugal.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: CHU of Liege, Laboratory of Clinical, Forensic and Environmental Toxicology, Belgium.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pirard
authors.affiliation: Institut de Santé au Travail (IST), Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Plateel
authors.affiliation: Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Janja Snoj
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tratnik
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance - Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum (IPA), Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wittsiepe
authors.affiliation: Environmental Toxicology, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Ambiental (CNSA), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain. Electronic address: castano@isciii.es.
authors.forename: Argelia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castaño
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D009035:Mothers; D016730:Program Development; D011786:Quality Control; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Biomonitoring; COPHES/DEMOCOPHES; Hair; Mercury; Minamata convention; Quality assurance