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Recommendations for biomonitoring of emergency responders: focus on occupational health investigations and occupational health research.

Decker JA; DeBord DG; Bernard B; Dotson GS; Halpin J; Hines CJ; Kiefer M; Myers K; Page E; Schulte P; Snawder J

Mil Med 2013 Jan; 178(1):68-75

https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00173

20042006

The disaster environment frequently presents rapidly evolving and unpredictable hazardous exposures to emergency responders. Improved estimates of exposure and effect from biomonitoring can be used to assess exposure-response relationships, potential health consequences, and effectiveness of control measures. Disaster settings, however, pose significant challenges for biomonitoring. A decision process for determining when to conduct biomonitoring during and following disasters was developed. Separate but overlapping decision processes were developed for biomonitoring performed as part of occupational health investigations that directly benefit emergency responders in the short term and for biomonitoring intended to support research studies. Two categories of factors critical to the decision process for biomonitoring were identified: Is biomonitoring appropriate for the intended purpose and is biomonitoring feasible under the circumstances of the emergency response? Factors within these categories include information needs, relevance, interpretability, ethics, methodology, and logistics. Biomonitoring of emergency responders can be a valuable tool for exposure and risk assessment. Information needs, relevance, and interpretability will largely determine if biomonitoring is appropriate; logistical factors will largely determine if biomonitoring is feasible. The decision process should be formalized and may benefit from advance planning.

Disaster-planning; Emergency-responders; Emergency-response; Rescue-workers; Medical-monitoring; Medical-research; Biological-monitoring; Hazardous-materials; Hazards; Health-hazards; Employee-exposure; Employee-health; Worker-health; Exposure-assessment; Dose-response; Decision-making; Occupational-health-programs; Risk-analysis; Fire-fighters; Police-officers; Military-personnel

John A. Decker, MS, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Mail Stop E-20, Atlanta, GA 30333

MMEDA9

20130101

Journal Article

2013

B20130124

1

0026-4075

EPRO; DART; DSHEFS; EID

Manufacturing

Military Medicine

GA; OH; CO