Constitution of a bank of biological material in the French Gazel cohort: logistical and practical aspects]

The Gazel cohort was launched in January 1989 among workers of the French national electricity and gas company to form an open and general purpose epidemiological laboratory. More than 20.000 workers (15.000 men, 5.000 women), aged from 35 to 50 volunteered to participate. One of the objectives of this cohort was the constitution of a bank of biological material aiming to collect and preserve various biological samples (serum, plasma, DNA, etc). This paper details the organisation of the bank and presents a feasability study concerning 2.000 volunteers.