Medical occupational safety encompasses occupational safety measures which require an individual medical assessment of the employees' health status in relation to his or her performed task. Unit 4.II.5 deals with occupational medical surveillance in the case of exposures to hazardous chemical agents and biological agents as well as other preventive occupational health care measures. It counsels the Occupational Medicine Committee (Ausschuss für Arbeitsmedizin) and the Committee on Hazardous Substances (Ausschuss für Gefahrstoffe), and conducts research and development on medical and epidemiological questions in medical examinations in occupational safety and health.

Biomonitoring is a method that can be applied to risk assessment in case of exposure to hazardous chemical agents both on an individual and on a workplace level. The unit conducts research in this field of activity on:

• Measurement strategies and methods of sampling for biological monitoring,
• Workplace implementation of biological monitoring,
• Exposure assessment through biological monitoring in field studies,
• Analytics in biological materials.

The unit operates a laboratory for analyses in biological material and has expertise in the identification of organic and inorganic biological monitoring parameters in blood and urine. An in-house developed analysis platform allows for the biological monitoring of volatile, organic substances in exhaled air. The unit trains laboratory chemists.

To facilitate the everyday application of biological monitoring, the unit maintains the freely accessible biological monitoring information system (Biomonitoring-Auskunftssystem) of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). This service allows for a search for analysis methods and assessment values starting from the respective hazardous substance. Furthermore the unit hosts the conference series "Biomonitoring in der Praxis".