Data protection & ethics

Especially when collecting samples and related data from humans, compliance with data protection and ethics is essential.

At all stages of sample collection - from the initial contact, to storage and examination, and finally to the disposal of samples - the Environment Agency Austria acts in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The samples and the corresponding data of the questionnaires are stored pseudonymously for the entire duration. This means that samples and data stored get a code consisting of letters and numbers, and a connection can only be established via this code.

The Environmental Specimen Bank of the Environment Agency Austria received a positive ethical vote for the collection of human samples from the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Vienna (EK-Nr. 1411/2021).