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LaKind JS, Sobus JR, Goodman M, Barr DB, Fürst P, Albertini RJ, Arbuckle TE, Schoeters G, Tan YM, Teeguarden J, Tornero-Velez R, Weisel CP. A proposal for assessing study quality: Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-lived Chemicals (BEES-C) instrument. Environ Int 2014; 73:195-207. [PMID: 25137624 PMCID: PMC4310547 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2014.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2014] [Revised: 07/12/2014] [Accepted: 07/16/2014] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The quality of exposure assessment is a major determinant of the overall quality of any environmental epidemiology study. The use of biomonitoring as a tool for assessing exposure to ubiquitous chemicals with short physiologic half-lives began relatively recently. These chemicals present several challenges, including their presence in analytical laboratories and sampling equipment, difficulty in establishing temporal order in cross-sectional studies, short- and long-term variability in exposures and biomarker concentrations, and a paucity of information on the number of measurements required for proper exposure classification. To date, the scientific community has not developed a set of systematic guidelines for designing, implementing and interpreting studies of short-lived chemicals that use biomonitoring as the exposure metric or for evaluating the quality of this type of research for WOE assessments or for peer review of grants or publications. We describe key issues that affect epidemiology studies using biomonitoring data on short-lived chemicals and propose a systematic instrument--the Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-lived Chemicals (BEES-C) instrument--for evaluating the quality of research proposals and studies that incorporate biomonitoring data on short-lived chemicals. Quality criteria for three areas considered fundamental to the evaluation of epidemiology studies that include biological measurements of short-lived chemicals are described: 1) biomarker selection and measurement, 2) study design and execution, and 3) general epidemiological study design considerations. We recognize that the development of an evaluative tool such as BEES-C is neither simple nor non-controversial. We hope and anticipate that the instrument will initiate further discussion/debate on this topic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy S LaKind
- LaKind Associates, LLC 106 Oakdale Avenue, Catonsville, MD 21228, USA; Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Penn State University College of Medicine, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, USA.
| | - Jon R Sobus
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA.
| | - Michael Goodman
- Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
| | - Dana Boyd Barr
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road, NE, Room 272, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
| | - Peter Fürst
- Chemical and Veterinary Analytical Institute, Münsterland-Emscher-Lippe (CVUA-MEL) Joseph-König-Straße 40, D-48147, Münster D-48151, Germany.
| | - Richard J Albertini
- University of Vermont College of Medicine, P.O. Box 168, Underhill Center, VT 05490, USA.
| | - Tye E Arbuckle
- Population Studies Division, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada, 50 Colombine Dr., A.L. 0801A, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, Canada.
| | - Greet Schoeters
- Environmental Risk and Health Unit, VITO, Industriezone Vlasmeer 7, 2400 Mol, Belgium; University of Antwerp, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Belgium.
| | - Yu-Mei Tan
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA.
| | - Justin Teeguarden
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, P.O. Box 999, MSIN P7-59, Richland, WA 99352, USA.
| | - Rogelio Tornero-Velez
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA.
| | - Clifford P Weisel
- Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UMDNJ, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
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