Toward better exposure assessment strategies--the new NIOSH initiative.

NIOSH has embarked on a project to update its exposure sampling strategies manual. The current NIOSH strategy has a number of limitations. This is an opportunity to develop a robust and comprehensive exposure assessment strategy. Some of the key features of such a strategy are outlined. The importance of accurate professional judgment and exposure modeling is discussed. Bayesian statistics offers a rational approach to integrating sampling data, professional judgments, and the outputs of exposure models in a comprehensive framework.

[1]  James H Vincent,et al.  Expert judgment and occupational hygiene: application to aerosol speciation in the nickel primary production industry. , 2003, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[2]  S M Rappaport,et al.  An exposure-assessments strategy accounting for within- and between-worker sources of variability. , 1995, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[3]  R C Spear,et al.  Environmental versus analytical variability in exposure measurements. , 1991, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal.

[4]  H Kromhout,et al.  Variation of exposure between workers in homogeneous exposure groups. , 1993, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal.

[5]  E. Symanski,et al.  A comprehensive evaluation of within- and between-worker components of occupational exposure to chemical agents. , 1993, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[6]  S. A. Roach A Method of Relating the Incidence of Pneumoconiosis to Airborne Dust Exposure , 1953, British journal of industrial medicine.

[7]  Kay Teschke,et al.  Exposure levels and determinants of softwood dust exposures in BC lumber mills, 1981-1997. , 2002, AIHA journal : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety.

[8]  William H. Bullock,et al.  A Strategy for Assessing and Managing Occupational Exposures, 3rd edition , 2006 .

[9]  R. M. Tuggle,et al.  The NIOSH decision scheme , 1981 .

[10]  J. Ashford The Design of a Long-Term Sampling Programme to Measure the Hazard Associated with an Industrial Environment , 1958 .

[11]  K. A. Busch,et al.  Occupational exposure sampling strategy manual , 1977 .

[12]  I. Hertz-Picciotto,et al.  Self-collected breath sampling for monitoring low-level benzene exposures among automobile mechanics. , 2002, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[13]  L. Sheppard,et al.  Comparison of task-based estimates with full-shift measurements of noise exposure. , 2003, AIHA journal : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety.

[14]  Morton Lippmann,et al.  Data Elements for Occupational Exposure Databases: Guidelines and Recommendations for Airborne Hazards and Noise , 1996 .

[15]  Sudipto Banerjee,et al.  Rating Exposure Control Using Bayesian Decision Analysis , 2006, Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene.

[16]  M Corn,et al.  Workplace exposure zones for classification of employee exposures to physical and chemical agents. , 1979, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal.

[17]  Paul Hewett PERFORMANCE-BASED EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES FOR TWA EXPOSURE LIMITS , 2006 .

[18]  S. Rappaport,et al.  Environmental and biological monitoring of benzene during self-service automobile refueling. , 2000, Environmental health perspectives.

[19]  I. Liljelind,et al.  Exposure assessment of monoterpenes and styrene: a comparison of air sampling and biomonitoring , 2003, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[20]  G Ramachandran,et al.  Retrospective exposure assessment using Bayesian methods. , 2001, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[21]  S M Rappaport,et al.  The rules of the game: an analysis of OSHA's enforcement strategy. , 1984, American journal of industrial medicine.

[22]  P. Wild,et al.  Combining expert ratings and exposure measurements: a random effect paradigm. , 2002, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[23]  Hans Kromhout,et al.  Tools for regulatory assessment of occupational exposure: development and challenges , 2007, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.