Environmental Health Monitoring System

From a large number of biomonitoring studies, it is increasingly clear that not only Czech, but the majority of the world population is exposed to a rich mixture of toxic chemicals. The Centre for Health and the Environment has been performing Human biomonitoring program in the Czech Republic since 1994.  It is focused on general population: adults, children and nursing mothers. The outputs were published in number of articles, e.g. 25 years of HBM in the Czech Republic (2018),  Exposure to Mixed Phthalates in Czech Preschool and School Children (2019), Biomonitoring of PFOA, PFOS and PFNA in human milk from Czech
Republic, time trends and estimation of infant’s daily intake (2020), Human biomonitoring in the Czech Republic. Overview of the results since 1994 (2023).

The National Institute of Public Health in Prague has joined the European-wide effort to harmonise human biomonitoring from COPHES-DEMOCOPHES project (2009-2012) through European Human Biomonitoring Initiative HBM4EU (2016-2022) to Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals – PARC (2022-2029) supported by the European Commission under the HORIZON Europe programme. Under this project NIPH realized the harmonized studies on younger adult and child population groups. The levels of toxic substances, such as heavy metals, phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides  and PFASs were analysed. Similar studies are currently performed in a number of European countries. Thus, a large harmonized dataset together with possible exposure sources and health outcomes will be available. The outputs will support European chemicals policy and help regulate the entry of at least the most emerging chemicals into the environment and human body.

A study investigating children’s exposure to toxic chemicals from the environment was conducted in 2024 in cooperation with elementary schools across the country: in the Pilsen region, Liberec, Prague, Jihlava, South Moravia and Karviná in North Moravian Region. Parents willing to participate with their children were detailed informed about the study and data protection. They provided information about the child’s diet, lifestyle and health status so that potential sources of exposure to toxic chemicals and their possible effects could be traced. We obtained samples of first morning urine and hair, which were analyzed in specialized laboratories for bisphenols, phthalate metabolites and their substitutes, pesticides, cotinine, cadmium and mercury. Preliminary results show that the exposure of cadmium and mercury in the Czech child population is relatively low and does not pose a significant health risk.

In 2025, the PARC project-harmonised HBM study on adult population aged 18 – 39 years was conducted in the same regions of the CR. The similar questionnaire supplemented by the occupational data was used. The socioeconomic composition of the study participants was representative of the Czech population in the corresponding age group. Bisphenols, phthalate metabolites and their substitutes, pesticides, PFASs, cotinine, cadmium, mercury and lead were analyzed in the urine and blood + serum samples.