It has long been known that our bodies carry around hundreds of substances that we have absorbed one way or another from the air, water, or food. Technology is now available to help detect extremely minute quantities of a number of substances—for some, less than a millionth of a gram, which is 30 billionths of an ounce. One process is known as biological monitoring, or biomonitoring, a technique for assessing human exposures to natural and synthetic chemicals based on sampling and analysis of an individual's tissues and fluids, usually urine and/or blood.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working to establish a baseline of what average citizens carry around in their bodies, broken down by age, gender, and other factors. This baseline is used to assess the effectiveness of efforts to help reduce exposures and to set priorities for research on whether the presence of any of these substances has any health effects.
The CDC took urine and blood samples from about 10,000 people and analyzed them for 275 different substances contained in the things we eat, drink, inhale, or touch. Results are available to view on the Biomonitoring Data Tables Page. The most recent data is from 2018. Aliphatic diisocyanates are not included in the chemicals listed in the CDC study findings.
