Food, pollutants, activity: a vast survey will monitor the health of the French population

The aim is to obtain an "accurate picture of the population's health," including "its exposure to around fifteen families of substances present in the environment," according to Santé publique France (SpF) and the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Health Safety (ANSES), which are working together to carry it out.

Called "Albane," this survey, which has the support of the ministries responsible for ecology, health, labor and agriculture, will survey separate samples of some 3,150 people every two years, "children and adults, randomly selected from more than a hundred survey areas distributed randomly across the country."

It will include a questionnaire on housing, occupation and family, a self-questionnaire (on lifestyle, health, eating habits, physical activity), a dietary survey, a 7-day physical activity measurement and a health examination. The latter will include urine and hair samples from participants over 3 years old and blood samples from those over 6 years old.

The data collected by the Albane survey will in particular make it possible to "establish reference values ​​for exposure based on the levels of impregnation of the population with substances present in the environment" such as pesticides.

Combined with data from the National Health Data System (SNDS), these data should show "which diseases develop based on the exposures, dietary habits and environmental characteristics described or measured." They will also feed into other work by ANSES aimed at establishing toxicological reference values ​​for a substance - the level from which the substance represents a risk to health.