Journeys in time for environmental protection

The Environmental Specimen Bank

With the Environmental Specimen Bank, research can travel into the past - and provide answers to environmental policy issues of today and tomorrow.

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Organisation and history
What is the Environmental Specimen Bank?

Scientists have been collecting samples from human beings and the environment, such as birds, plants, mussels and deer, for the Environmental Specimen Bank throughout Germany since the 1980s.

HOW IT STARTED

Journey into the past

In the 1970s, the German government invited a group of high-ranking scientists. For the first time in Germany, legal regulations were created to protect people and the environment from pollutants. Politicians and scientists were looking for a way to check the success of these new laws. And so the Environmental Specimen Bank was born.

Historische Aufnahme
Start
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1981
State of play
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more than 500.000 samples
Region
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Germany

How is the Environmental Specimen Bank organised?

Today, environmental researchers use the historical samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank primarily as evidence when critical chemicals are under scrutiny.
As if on a journey into the past, they can evaluate the contamination of samples from long ago. The results show them whether the chemical levels in the samples of the Environmental Specimen Bank are increasing or decreasing over time. The data can then question the use of a chemical and call for policy action - or give the all-clear.

German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety

Lead

illu_umweltprobenbank_01 copy ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK
German Environment Agency

administration and research

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Contract partners

sample collecting, archiving, analysing

Federal Institute of Hydrology, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nürnberg, University Trier, Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, Eurofins GfA Lab Service GmBH

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Tasks of the environmental specimen bank

Tracking trends

The German Environmental Specimen Bank is an archive. Human and environmental samples are stored under very low temperatures. They are collected, transported, processed and archived in such a way that their biological and chemical information will remain constant over long periods of time.

Detective
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Investigates what substances are present in human beings and the environment
alarm bell
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Can elaborate trends for chemicals of concern at any time
advisor
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Are restriction measures necessary and do they work in practice?
Memory
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Archive for the state of the environment and the population

How does sample processing work?

Environmental samples

Environmental experts collect environmental samples from ecosystems all over Germany. Most samples are prepared in mobile laboratories immediately after sampling and then cooled to -150°C above liquid nitrogen

BIOTASAMPLES INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES

The cold chain is then always maintained: the environmental samples are first ground at ultra low temperatures in so-called cryogenic mills, then portioned and finally permanently stored at temperatures below 150°C in the archive for environmental samples above liquid nitrogen.

CRYO MILL 1-2 KG POOLED SAMPLE IN 10 G SUBSAMPLES
ARCHIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES
INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES CRYO MILL 1-2 KG POOLED SAMPLES IN 10 G SUBSAMPLES ARCHIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES BIOTASAMPLES

Environmental samples

Environmental experts collect environmental samples from ecosystems all over Germany. Most samples are prepared in mobile laboratories immediately after sampling and then cooled to -150°C above liquid nitrogen

BIOTASAMPLES INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES

The cold chain is then always maintained: the environmental samples are first ground at ultra low temperatures in so-called cryogenic mills, then portioned and finally permanently stored at temperatures below 150°C in the archive for environmental samples above liquid nitrogen.

CRYO MILL 1-2 KG POOLED SAMPLE IN 10 G SUBSAMPLES
ARCHIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES

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Human samples

Human samples are collected by experts under medical supervision. They are - unlike environmental samples - processed and stored individually. Whole blood, blood plasma and 24-hour urine samples are portioned immediately after collection.

 

WHOLE BLOOD BLOOD PLASMA 24-HOUR URINE INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES

The samples are then placed in a mobile tank cooled to -150°C and taken to the archive for human samples.

HUMAN SAMPLES ARCHIVE HUMAN SAMPLES
WHOLE BLOOD BLOOD PLASMA 24-HOUR URINE HUMAN SAMPLES INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES ARCHIVE HUMAN SAMPLES

Human samples

Human samples are collected by experts under medical supervision. They are - unlike environmental samples - processed and stored individually. Whole blood, blood plasma and 24-hour urine samples are portioned immediately after collection.

 

WHOLE BLOOD BLOOD PLASMA 24-HOUR URINE INDIVIDUAL SAMPLES

The samples are then placed in a mobile tank cooled to -150°C and taken to the archive for human samples.

HUMAN SAMPLES ARCHIVE HUMAN SAMPLES
Specimens and sampling areas

Samples from plants, animals and humans

The sampling areas are selected to reflect the state of the environment in Germany as accurately as possible and at the same time to reveal the environmental impact of human acitivity. Therefore, samples are collected both near cities and in national parks, or at different locations on the major rivers Elbe, Rhine and Danube.

Sampling regions
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14
Specimen Types
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15
Ecosystems
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6

For the Environmental Specimen Bank, a total of 15 sample types of animals and plants are collected in 14 areas. In addition to the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts, these typical German ecosystems also include rivers, lakes, agriculturally used areas, managed and less used forests as well as cities. 

The human samples are from 120 students each aged 20 to 29 from Münster, Halle (Saale), Greifswald and Ulm. For the human samples, blood and blood plasma as well as 24h urine are collected once a year. In addition to the samples, metadata are also collected - for example, whether the participants live in the city or in the country and the type of diet they follow.

Sampling sites
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4
Specimen types
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3
Individuals
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4x120
Environmental Specimen banks worldwide

Global chemical monitoring

Pollution knows no borders. Chemical safety regulations usually result from the initiative of several states or international agreements. Environmental Specimen Banks can support chemical monitoring with their retrospective investigations. The more Environmental Specimen Banks participate in such investigations, the more meaningful the picture of global chemical pollution becomes.

Number
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globally
1st Environmental Specimen Bank
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Sweden
Oldest archive
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1960s and 1970s
International networks

It is important for international environmental protection that environmental specimen banks work closely together. The use of mercury, for example, but also of a number of organic chemicals such as DDT or brominated flame retardants are now banned in many countries. Environmental Specimen Banks can show whether chemical policies are working and whether substance pollution is really declining worldwide. To do this, it is useful to link pollution data for humans and the environment and to promote the Environmental Specimen Bank idea where they have not been existing so far, for example in developing countries.