Module 3: Toxicology - Section 4: Biological Monitoring
TOX 4.1: Introduction

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the module you should be familiar with:

  1. The law covering biological monitoring in South Africa;
  2. The distinction between biological monitoring and biological effect monitoring;
  3. The biological exposure index (BEI);
  4. The relative advantages of environmental monitoring vs biological monitoring;
  5. The pitfalls of biological monitoring and biological effect monitoring;
  6. An example of biological monitoring: lead;
  7. An example of biological effect monitoring: red cell cholinesterase;
  8. Be able to describe a biological monitoring programme for a given workplace or substance.

ACTIVITIES:

  1. The lecture will orient you to the relationship between biological monitoring and medical surveillance. Read the reference article provided.
  2. Try to answer the questions posed in these notes before looking at the answers.

EXERCISES:

Answer the questions as you go along. 

REFERENCES:

Ehrlich RI. Occupational medical surveillance. S Afr J Cont Med Ed 1996;14:1301-10. This is a general approach to medical surveillance which includes biological monitoring.)



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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za. Last updated Jan 2007.
Disclaimer note: Some resources and descriptions may be out-dated. For suggested updates and feedback, please contact healthoer@uct.ac.za.