Table 1 Current environmental specimen banks in 2008

Home page

http://hes.pbh.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kuhsb/

http://www.ehime-u.ac.jp/~cmes/esbank/esbank.htm

http://www.nies.go.jp/timecaps1/index.htm

Foundation

Founded in 2004 by Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine

Founded in 2002 by Center for Marine Environmental Studies

Founded in 2004 by National Institute for Environmental Studies

Storage

−30°C

−25°C

−20 to −150°C

Sample description

Human blood and serum sampled with 1-day meals. Those samples have been collected from 1970s to 2008 in Japan, China, Korea, Philippine, Thailand, and Vietnam. While there are some blood samples and meal samples, which have been collected independently, most of the samples have been collected in a food duplicate design

Wildlife, sea water, soils from various locations of the world

Fishes, shellfishes and marine sediments

Breast milk samples have been collected from 1980s to the present in Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam

Airborne particulate matters

Urine samples have been collected in the 2000s in Japan

Human breast milk collected in Tokyo from 2001 to 2007, 30 samples per year

Sample quantity or sampling

Blood or serum: 28,000

This bank has collected the tissues and organs of 1,000 species with 100,000 wild life and environmental samples

Bivalves have been collected all over Japan from 2003. They have been collected at eight sites annually and other more than 100 sites Fish and sediments in Tokyo bay collected at 20 sites annually from 2003

Meals: 3,500 days

Breast milk: 3,000

Details are unknown for human breast milk samples

Urine: 14,000

Airborne particulate matters from six sites

Human breast milk samples, totally about 600

Meta data

Serum and food samples are accompanied by personal information, including age, sex, occupation, food habit, and meal menu. Breast milk samples were collected with questionnaires between 0 to 12 post-partum weeks

No description on the home page

Design

Human exposure monitoring: Most of blood and meals samples were collected in a food duplicate design (see text)

Global marine monitoring

No specific designs

Functional category of the bank

Retrospective human exposure monitoring for Asian countries

Retrospective ecological monitoring

Long-term storage for future studies

Home page

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/gallery/specimen.htm

http://www.umweltprobenbank.de

http://www.nrm.se/

Foundation

Founded in 1979 by National Institute of Standards and Technology and U.S. EPA

Founded in 1981 by University Hospital Munster and Federal Environmental Agency

Founded in 1980 by the Swedish Museum of National History

Storage

−80 to  −150°C

−150°C

−30 to −80°C

Sample description

Human liver, Human blood serum, Human blood spots, human food specimens

24-h urine, whole blood and blood plasma have been collected from the beginning. Until 2005, saliva, scalp and pubic hair had been collected. Recently, collection of placenta, umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid have initiated

Mammals, Birds, Eggs, Wings of birds, Fish, Mosses soil, sludge, breast milk and food products

Mussels and oysters, fish livers and muscle, fish (whole)

In total approximately 8,000–9,000 specimens have been collected annually and 3,500 specimens have been processed for chemical and biological analysis

Marine sediments, marine mammal tissues, seabird eggs, peregrine falcon eggs and feathers

Sample quantity or sampling

While relatively small numbers of human samples (8–722), a large numbers of ecological animal samples

125 volunteers aged between 20 and 29 per location and year for 4 sites joined the donation of samples

Mammals: 20,000

Birds:21,000, eggs: 6,500

Wings of birds: 30,000

Fish: 115,000, mosses: 10,000, sludge: 8,000

Breast milk: 800, food products: 12,000

Meta data

No description on the home page

Sex, age, place of birth, medical data, and personal behavior by a standard self-reported questionnaire

Registered in database together with results made by chemical and biological analysis

Design

Domestic ecosystem monitoring with consideration of trophic levels and wild animal health status

Human body burden monitoring

Nordic ecosystem monitoring of ecological system with consideration of food chain and biological diversities

Functional category of the bank

Whole ecological monitoring in the sea around USA

Real and retrospective monitoring and long-term storage

Real-time and retrospective monitoring and long-term storage