Title: biological monitoring
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - biological monitoring
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.BT06902
Status: current

Definition
Continuous or repeated measurement of potentially toxic substances or their metabolites in tissues, secreta, excreta, expired air, or any combination of these to evaluate occupational or environmental exposure and health risk by comparison with appropriate reference values based on knowledge of the probable relationship between ambient exposure and resultant health effects. Sometimes also called 'biomonitoring'.

Related Terms
- exposure: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/ET06811
- risk: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/RT06807

Source
- PAC, 2001, 73, 993. 'Risk assessment for occupational exposure to chemicals. A review of current methodology (IUPAC Technical Report)' on page 1021 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200173060993)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/BT06902/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/BT06902/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/BT06902/xml

Citation: Citation: 'biological monitoring' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.BT06902
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-28T18:45:17+00:00