Comparing Human Biomonitoring Health-Based Guidance Values (HB2GVs): A Case Study of Di-(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate (DEHP)
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The International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) International Human Biomonitoring (i-HBM) Working Group recently launched a free, online repository of biomonitoring guidance values referred to as the Human Biomonitoring Health-Based Guidance Value (HB2GV) Dashboard. The goal of the dashboard is to assist global human biomonitoring data users (e.g., risk assessors, risk managers) and biomonitoring programs with a readily available compilation of guidance values for the general population. The dashboard contains around 600 HB2GVs for over 150 chemicals or their metabolites; although there are many different types of HB2GVs, most are Biomonitoring Equivalents (BEs), Human Biomonitoring (HBM-I and HBM-II) Values, or Human Biomonitoring Guidance Values (HBM-GVs). Therefore, there is a need to inform users of the relative differences among available guidance values and to help users identify the HB2GV that could be most suitable for their purposes. Here, we summarize the derivation of HB2GVs for a case study chemical, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). We selected DEHP because there are over 30 unique HB2GVs available from the three most common guidance value types (BE, HBM-I, HBM-GV). We also compare the available HB2GVs with a focus on the differences among their derivation methods, relative quality and confidence, and interpretation. This approach can be applied to additional chemicals in the future to facilitate the use of HB2GVs and health-based interpretation of human biomonitoring data.