The beginning, middle, and end: development of a job exposure matrix for three chemicals over four decades for one epidemiologic study.
Authors
Ahrenholz SH
Source
American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 9-15, 1998, Atlanta, Georgia. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1998 May; :40
Link
NIOSHTIC No.
20043788
Abstract
The process to develop a job exposure matrix (]EM) includes the identification, acquisition, assembly, manipulation, interpretation, and application of data. Original industrial hygiene data collected over 40 years (at a gaseous diffusion plant) were used to estimate airborne concentrations of uranium, nickel, and fluorides. This process began with the identification of about 16,000 industrial hygiene surveys and initially covered over 100 buildings. Sampling methods ranged from Greenberg-Smith impingers to current day filter cassettes. Unification of contaminant identities and units was necessary to facilitate subsequent exposure characterization. A total of 5220 industrial hygiene sample results were used in the final JEM. Problems encountered during data processing included censored data, missing limits of detection, unknown sample volumes and durations, and unsampled time intervals. Buildings ultimately included in the JEM were those with 50 or more samples. Industrial hygiene data were pooled by decade based on historical knowledge of site activities and to compensate for unsampled periods. The skewness of the historic industrial hygiene data prompted the development of exceedance values for the uranium and fluoride data assigned to a decade. Exceedance values represented the proportion of airborne contaminant values that exceeded an occupational exposure limit during a decade. Reference exposure limits used were the threshold limit values existing at the start of plant operations. The process enabled an assignment of exposure based on the proportion of time contaminant levels may have exceeded an advisory level, utilizing contaminant data collected during the time period of interest. The effort required to produce the JEM was more involved than the final product suggests.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.