Assessment of Human Exposure to Chemical Hazards

Human biomonitoring is an exposure assessment approach with the potential value-add supplementation to existing sources of information for regulatory risk assessments and for supporting food safety policies. The collaboration involving academic partners from the sciences and public health disciplines to quantify the in vivo chemical exposure of chemicals will take reference from the findings in the Singapore's total diet study on the prioritised chemical hazards of interest for a more precise assessment of the distribution of risk in the population. Direct measurement of chemicals and/or metabolites in biological specimens obtained from study subjects will be conducted to provide a more comprehensive understanding on the baseline dietary chemical exposure in the local population. Dietary assessment using food frequency questionnaire will be administered to the same group of study subjects to associate human exposure to chemical hazards with food consumption across the different population groups in Singapore.

Inclusion criteria

• Must be English-literate and able to give informed consent in English
• 21 to 60 years of age (inclusive) at screening
• Healthy adults
• Race must be Chinese or Indian or Malay
• Reliable and willing to make themselves available for the duration of the study and are willing to follow study procedures

Exclusion criteria

• Known or ongoing psychiatric disorders within 3 years
• Being diagnosed with cancer, heart disease, stroke, renal failure, serious mental or physical illnesses at the time of recruitment
• Have donated blood of more than 500 mL within 4 weeks of study enrolment