Development and Evaluation of a Tool for Retrospective Exposure Assessment of Selected Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and EMF in the Car Manufacturing Industry

作者：Mester Birte; Schmeier Nils; Luenzmann Hauke; Pohlabeln Hermann; Langner Ingo; Behrens Thomas; Ahrens Wolfgang^*

来源：Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2011, 55(7): 736-751.

DOI：10.1093/annhyg/mer023

• endocrine disruption
• individual expert exposure assessment
• job exposure matrix
• retrospective exposure assessment

Methods: An industry-specific JEM was developed and automatic exposure estimation was performed based on this JEM. A subsample of exposure ratings was done by IEEA to identify determinants of disagreement between the JEM and the individual review. Possible determinants were analyzed by calculating odds ratios (ORs) of disagreement between ratings with regard to different dimensions (e.g. high versus low intensity of exposure). Disagreement in >= 20% of the sampled exposure ratings with a statistically significant OR was chosen as a threshold for inclusion of the exposure ratings into a final IEEA.
Results: The most important determinants of disagreement between JEM and individual review were working outside of the production line (disagreement 80%), low probability of exposure (disagreement 25%), and exposure depending on specific activities like usage of specific lacquers (disagreement 32%) for jobs within the production line. These determinants were the selection criteria of exposure ratings for the subsequent final IEEA.
Conclusions: Combining a JEM and a subsequent final IEEA for a selected subset of exposure ratings is a feasible and labor-saving approach for exposure assessment in large occupational epidemiological studies.

• 出版日期2011-8