HBM4LV: stepping towards a national human biomonitoring program in Latvia

Human biomonitoring assesses total exposure to chemicals. Latvia is one of the countries in Europe without a national human biomonitoring program. Therefore the Ministry of Health initiated a State Research Program granting a 2-year project called “Development of Human Biomonitoring Program for Latvia - HBM4LV” to move towards program development.
One of the project tasks is the identification of priority chemicals to be included in the program. Initially, the Ministry of Health of Latvia pre-defined three priority groups: pesticides, heavy metals, and persistent organic pollutants. Acknowledging the work that had already been done under HBM4EU, it was decided to access the criteria that were used in HBM4EU chemical prioritization strategy because this, in turn, reviewed the criteria used in other HBM programs for chemical prioritization. The HBM4LV prioritization strategy combines HBM4EU data and national data on environmental contaminants, using an adapted Hanlon method, assessing problem size, hazardous and exposure characteristics, national importance and societal concern. Each component is scored (scores from 15-60 points) and weighted to produce a final score (maximum of 150 points).The substances and/or groups are investigated in a similar manner and background documents are prepared for discussion with the national Human Biomonitoring Council to agree on priority chemicals that should be monitored in Latvian citizens.
Substance identification and prioritization is essential for setting up a human biomonitoring program. Our experience can model for countries that currently do not have national human biomonitoring programs.
This study is funded by State Research Program “Development of Human Biomonitoring Program for Latvia - HBM4LV”, project nr. VPP-VM-Sabiedrības_Veselība-2023/4-0001.