Human biomonitoring (HBM) is the determination of pollutants or their metabolites in biological material (blood, urine, saliva, etc.). With the help of HBM, the exposure to environmental chemicals can be assessed to identify vulnerable populations or regional differences.

Tobacco harm reduction is a public health strategy to lower the health risks to individuals and wider society associated with using tobacco products. Biomarkers specific for the exposure to tobacco and smoke are key endpoints for evaluating new emerging nicotine products with a potentially reduced risk.

Cannabis and cannabinoid products represent a fast growing market in therapeutics, medicine and are legalized for recreational use in more and more countries. Risk assessment by measuring suitable biomarkers of exposure is a powerful tool in the evaluation of these products.

The metabolome represents the entity of all ‘small’ molecules (<1500 Dalton) and is most predictive of an organism's phenotype. Comparisons of the metabolome of well defined groups of individuals allow the identification of biomarkers, which are responsible for group differences.