This award will support a seminar, "Biological Monitoring of Occupational Exposure", organized jointly by Professor Vera Thomas of the University of Miami School of Medicine and Prof. Masana Ogata of the Okayama University Medical School, Japan. Participants will meet in Honolulu, Hawaii from August 22 to 25, 1989, to exchange information on methods for biological monitoring of occupational exposure to toxic chemicals in the U.S. and Japan, clarify factors which influence biological levels of exposure indicators, discuss differences in monitoring practices in the two countries, and promote sharing of data, partially through establishing reference values for biological monitoring. The seminar will bring together researchers affiliated with univer- sities and governmental and industrial laboratories in the U.S. and Japan. Those invited are experts in fields related to biological monitoring, including physicians, industrial hygienists, chemists, and toxicologists. In addition to sessions intended to instruct each side on the monitoring practices of the other country, discussions will be held on unifying monitoring data bases, and on the current status of research on monitoring in each country. Specific problems of monitoring in the mining and semiconductor industries will also be discussed. This seminar should be valuable in helping scientists bridge the gap between the usual air measurements of toxic chemicals, and actual biological absorption.
