The US Pharmacopeia—the nation's public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, dietary supplements, and related products—asked the Institute of Medicine to convene a workshop that addressed issues related to their heavy metals testing methodology. The workshop, which was held on 26-27 August 2008, discussed topics including the state of knowledge on heavy metals exposure from healthcare products; the health effects of such exposures, USP's and other pharmacopeias' testing methodologies, and goals for any revisions to the methodologies. It was organized into four sessions:

·          Session I – Which Metals and Why are We Concerned with Them? (Day 1)

·          Session II – Risk Assessment and Limit Setting (Day 1)

·          Session III – Modifying Factors for Risk Assessment (Day 2)

·          Session IV – Measurements  (Day 2)

Unedited verbatim transcripts of the two days of the workshop were produced and are available for download in PDF format.