Post-Belmont Ethics and the Challenge of Results Communication in Biomonitoring Studies: Lessons from Genetics and Imaging Research

Biomonitoring is a critical tool to assess the effects of chemicals on health. Scientists now seek to understand the exposome, encompassing life-course exposures from physical and social environments. This trend, coupled with increased support for community-engaged research, challenges norms about results communication between scientists and study participants. Yet biomonitoring still involves considerable uncertainty and contestation. This raises ethical questions for IRBs that oversee research involving data sharing despite scientific uncertainties, and balancing individual and community- level research protections. We examine these tensions by drawing relevant lessons from the fields of genetics and brain imaging. In all three fields ethical debates about whether/how to report-back results to study participants are precipitated by two trends. First, changes in analytical methods have made more data accessible to stakeholders. For biomonitoring, improved techniques enable detection of more chemicals at ...