Exposure Assessment for a Study of Workers Exposed to Acrylonitrile. I. Job Exposure Profiles: A Computerized Data Management System

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Abstract
In industry-based epidemiologic studies, both air monitoring data and descriptive information are often used in the evaluation of workplace exposures. The format of the descriptive information may vary by plant, department, job title, and year; information on a particular job may often be scattered throughout many documents and may be repetitious. These problems make it difficult to efficiently and systematically assess exposures and document the basis for the assessment. This report describes a computerized data management system that provides a systematic organization of the exposure information collected from various sources at different plants. This computerized system was developed for an epidemiologic study of workers exposed to acrylonitrile to provide documentation of the information that was evaluated to assess exposures. The system was also developed to allow efficient reference as to where that information was found in the study documents and was maintained by unique job/department/plant combinations. The information included items such as a description of the manufacturing process for the department, the tasks and/or duties performed in the job, changes in the department that had a significant effect on exposure levels, the frequency of airborne, peak, and dermal exposures, personal protective equipment use, and the presence of other chemical exposures. This type of data management system could be used in other studies to document collected information or as the basis for maintaining and updating current industrial hygiene records systems. It was, however, developed for use in another computerized system to estimate quantitative levels of exposure. This other system will be described in a future report. Stewart, P.A.; Lemanski, D.; White, D.; Zey, J.; Herrick, R.F.; Masters, M.; Rayner, J.; Dosemeci, M.; Gomez, M.; Pottem, L.: Exposure Assessment for a Study of Workers Exposed to Acrylonitrile. I. Job Exposure Profiles: A Computerized Data Management System. Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg. 7(12):820–825; 1992.