These specific substances may include pollutants in abiotic component of the environment including air, soil and water and a variety of toxins in the industrial effluents. Since living organisms are capable of sensing the presence of a variety of substances, they have been profitably used for developing devices, which will help in environment management, and in developing more efficient industries. In designing a biosensor, an enzymes or an antibody or even microbial cells are associated with microchip devices, which are used for quantitative estimation of a substance. The subject is so important that international congresses, each described as “World Congress on Biosensors”, are regularly held, since 1990. A journal called ‘Biosensors and Bioelectronics’. Is also being published to give the desired emphasis to this subject.

Another related aspect is ‘biomonitoring’ or ‘biological monitoring (BMN)’, which is defined as the “measurement and assessment of work place agents or their metabolites either in tissues, secreta, excreta or any combination of these systems”. In occupationally exposed subjects (human beings). While biomonitoring refers to uptake, distribution, biotransformation, accumulation and excretion of toxic agents, their biological effects in workers exposed to monitoring of these agents is often described as ‘Biological Effect Monitoring (BEM)’. Fully evaluated biological monitoring methods exists today to assess the risk to which employes are exposed due to exposure to the toxic agents present at the working place.