Children ́ s Environmental Health in Germany

What is 'GerES'? The German Environmental Survey (GerES) is a large scale population study which has repeatedly been carried out by the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) with financial support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The objectives are ・ to generate representative data on the concentration distribution of environmental pollutants in human specimens (blood and urine) and in media like tap water, indoor air, house dust, and food, ・ to establish reference values based on these distributions, ・ to document spatial and temporal differences in population exposure, ・ to improve information on the contribution of contaminants in indoor air, tap water, house dust and food to the body burden of the general population, ・ to provide policy makers with information if measures to reduce environmental contamination are necessary.