Human biomonitoring is used to estimate exposure to environmental chemicals by measuring the chemical, its metabolites, or reaction products in biological specimens. Since 2007, the biomonitoring component of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) has measured hundreds of chemicals in blood, urine, hair, or pooled serum. The CHMS is an ongoing national survey with data collected in two-year cycles.
Biomonitoring data are available through an interactive online tool called the Canadian Biomonitoring Dashboard (https://health-infobase.canada.ca/biomonitoring/). New data will be added to the dashboard as they become available. Information specific to the biomonitoring component of the CHMS, including general information on the survey design, fieldwork, laboratory and statistical analyses, and considerations for data interpretation can be found in Health Canada’s biomonitoring reports. These archived reports as well as biomonitoring resources such as a biomonitoring content summary and fact sheets are available on the Resources (https://health-infobase.canada.ca/biomonitoring/resources.html) tab of the Canadian Biomonitoring Dashboard. More information on the full survey can be found on the Statistics Canada website (https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/survey/household/5071).