Abstract.
A thorough assessment of human exposure to environmental agents should incorporate mobility patterns and temporal changes in human behaviors and concentrations of contaminants; yet the temporal dimension is often under-emphasized in exposure assessment endeavors, due in part to insufficient tools for visualizing and examining temporal datasets. Spatio-temporal visualization tools are valuable for integrating a temporal component, thus allowing for examination of continuous exposure histories in environmental epidemiologic investigations. An application of these tools to a bladder cancer case-control study in Michigan illustrates continuous exposure life-lines and maps that display smooth, continuous changes over time. Preliminary results suggest increased risk of bladder cancer from combined exposure to arsenic in drinking water (>25 μg/day) and heavy smoking (>30 cigarettes/day) in the 1970s and 1980s, and a possible cancer cluster around automotive, paint, and organic chemical industries in the early 1970s. These tools have broad application for examining spatially- and temporally-specific relationships between exposures to environmental risk factors and disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was supported by grant R01 CA96002-10, Geographic-Based Research in Cancer Control and Epidemiology, from the National Cancer Institute. Development of the STISTM software was funded by grants R43 ES10220 from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and R01 CA92669 from the National Cancer Institute. Access to cancer case records was provided by Michigan Cancer Surveillance Program within the Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Michigan Department of Community Health. The authors thank Michigan Public Health Institute for conducting the telephone interview and Stacey Fedewa and Lisa Bailey for entering written surveys into a database. The authors thank 3 anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Meliker, J., Slotnick, M., AvRuskin, G. et al. Improving exposure assessment in environmental epidemiology: Application of spatio-temporal visualization tools. J Geograph Syst 7, 49–66 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-005-0149-4
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-005-0149-4