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New Opportunities in Exposure Assessment of Occupational Epidemiology: Use of Measurements to Aid Exposure Reconstruction in Population-Based Studies

  • Occupational Health (LT Stayner and P Demers, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Exposure assessment efforts in population-based studies are increasingly incorporating measurements. The published literature was reviewed to identify the measurement sources and the approaches used to incorporate measurements into these efforts.

Recent Findings

The variety of occupations and industries in these studies made collecting participant-specific measurements impractical. Thus, the starting point was often the compilation of large databases of measurements from inspections, published literature, and other exposure surveys. These measurements usually represented multiple occupations, industries, and worksites, and spanned multiple decades. Measurements were used both qualitatively and quantitatively, dependent on the coverage and quality of the data. Increasingly, statistical models were used to derive job-, industry-, time period-, and other determinant-specific exposure concentrations.

Summary

Quantitative measurement-based approaches are increasingly replacing expert judgment, which facilitates the development of quantitative exposure-response associations. Evaluations of potential biases in these measurement sources, and their representativeness of typical exposure situations, warrant additional examination.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA

    Pamela J. Dopart & Melissa C. Friesen

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  1. Pamela J. Dopart
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  2. Melissa C. Friesen
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Correspondence to Melissa C. Friesen.

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Pamela J. Dopart and Melissa C. Friesen declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This project was funded by the Intramural Research Programs of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, NIH.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Occupational Health

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Dopart, P.J., Friesen, M.C. New Opportunities in Exposure Assessment of Occupational Epidemiology: Use of Measurements to Aid Exposure Reconstruction in Population-Based Studies. Curr Envir Health Rpt 4, 355–363 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-017-0153-0

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