Development of an occupational airborne chemical exposure matrix.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Population-based studies of the occupational contribution to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease generally rely on self-reported exposures to vapours, gases, dusts and fumes (VGDF), which are susceptible to misclassification.

Aims

To develop an airborne chemical job exposure matrix (ACE JEM) for use with the UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2000) system.

Methods

We developed the ACE JEM in stages: (i) agreement of definitions, (ii) a binary assignation of exposed/not exposed to VGDF, fibres or mists (VGDFFiM), for each of the individual 353 SOC codes and (iii) assignation of levels of exposure (L; low, medium and high) and (iv) the proportion of workers (P) likely to be exposed in each code. We then expanded the estimated exposures to include

SUBMITTER: Sadhra SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4913368 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature