How One State’s Public Health Laboratory Is Using Biomonitoring to Protect Kids

Due to their small stature, developing systems and normal play behaviors (e.g., exploring surfaces with their hands and mouths), young children are particularly vulnerable to the health hazards caused by exposure to the dangerous heavy metals and toxic chemicals found in some consumer products and the environment.

In an effort to help families reduce their children’s exposure to these harmful substances, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), in partnership with the state’s school districts, local health agencies and tribal nations, launched a biomonitoring program called Healthy Kids Minnesota (HKMN) in 2021. Children 3-to-6 years old can participate in the voluntary program with parental permission.

The program, which receives state as well as federal funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), assesses exposure to a variety of chemicals that can impact health. Those chemicals—which can be found in electronics, plastics, food packaging, personal care products and more—include metals, flame retardants, phthalates, environmental phenols, pesticides and air pollution chemicals.

How Healthy Kids Minnesota Works

The five-year program spends a year assessing children in two regions of the state—one in the Twin Cities metro area and one in greater Minnesota. According to Jessica Nelson, PhD, an epidemiologist with MDH and program director for HKMN, 55-85% of families informed about the program volunteer to participate, and to date over 1,800 children have enrolled.

The program tests a participating child’s urine sample to detect their exposure to over 90 individual chemicals that can cause a host of health concerns—everything from impacting brain and reproductive development to increasing cancer risk. Urine samples are sent to the Minnesota Department of Health - Public Health Laboratory (MDH-PHL) after collection, where the chemicals of interest are isolated and assessed.

“We make it clear from the very beginning that these are not clinical tests,” Nelson said. “For example, we won’t know from the urine test how a child’s health may be impacted. But the families can see how their child compares to other kids from the same area and tested in the same year. And then we give tips on how families can lower their child’s exposures.”

In two different areas of the state, for example, urine from over 50 tested children had high levels of inorganic arsenic (exposure to inorganic arsenic during brain development has been associated with lower IQ, learning difficulties and behavior problems). Public health officials determined that one cause of the exposure may be frequent consumption of certain types/varieties of rice. Because arsenic is often present in soil and water, rice can take up arsenic in flooded rice paddies during the growing phase

“Rice is a healthy food and important to a lot of cultures,” Nelson noted. “We didn’t tell the families we spoke with to stop eating rice, but we shared information with them on how to reduce their exposure—for instance, recommending white rice over brown, which has less arsenic, and cooking it in extra water.”

What’s next?

As HKMN begins its final year, both Nelson and her team hope the program will continue, and that areas of the state where they’ve already tested kids can be revisited.

“There’s so much value in doing this program in an ongoing way,” Nelson commented. “We’ll be able to track trends across communities, look at changes over time and respond better to concerning exposures. And we’ll be able to take advantage of the amazing capacity we’ve built in our state to do this important work.”

The knowledge the testing provides can inform not only families, but state policy makers as well. Minnesota’s biomonitoring program was established by the 2007 Minnesota Legislature.

“Sharing results with the families in our program is really important,” Nelson said, “but we also look to the bigger picture of providing information for policies and programs that can reduce exposure of the state’s children to harmful environmental chemicals.”

But none of that can happen without adequate, sustained funding.

“Our initial biomonitoring studies started in 2008,” said Carin Huset, PhD, a research scientist in the Chemical Threats and Biomonitoring Unit at the MDH-PHL in St. Paul who is also involved with HKMN. “We were able to do one community study, then another community study. But we didn’t have the support to conduct a big-picture program of this sort. That’s why this CDC funding is so essential. It has enabled us to build the program into what it is now. These are problems we can help solve, but we need the consistent financial support to do it. That’s why it’s been so important to have an opportunity like this.”