Gomes, BrunoLouro, HenriquetaSilva, Maria João2019-02-282019-02-282018-10http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/5999A fundamental goal of environmental/occupational health policy is to reduce and, whenever possible, prevent human exposure to chemical substances that may lead to morbidity or mortality. Human biomonitoring (HBM) allows the assessment of the levels of certain substances in the body, through the analysis of biomarkers of exposure (chemical substances, metabolites) and it has been considered as an extremely important tool in public health. A great strength of HBM is that it provides unambiguous indication that both exposure and absorption have occurred. On the other hand, measuring uniquely exposure biomarkers does not provide information on preclinical effects that may allow establishing a link between exposure and health effects. This work aims summarizing the most used biomarkers of effect and give evidence of the importance of these biomarkers in HBM and public health protection, based on recently published data. Briefly, these biomarkers consist of biochemical alterations in urine or blood, endocrine changes, cytogenetic alterations [micronuclei, chromosomal aberrations, translocations, sister chromatid exchanges and DNA repair] or interactions with macromolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins through the recent –omics technologies. The inclusion of biomarkers of effect in HBM studies contributes to bridge the gap between exposure and health effects, because they give information on early biological alterations before the onset of disease. Given that these biomarkers reflect reversible alterations in the organism, the effects detected are likely to be prevented, if exposure to the critical substance (or mixture of substances) is reduced or ceased. Thus, the joint information gathered from biomarkers of exposure and effect in HBM can be used to improve health risk assessment and reinforce the scientific basis to implement preventive policies in occupational and environmental settings. The HBM4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 733032.engGenotoxicidade AmbientalBiomarkersBiomonitoringconference object