A Bayesian Approach to Retrospective Exposure Assessment

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ramachandran G ; Vincent JH
• Description:
  A variety of health effects are caused by chronic, cumulative exposure over time to pollutants. In these cases, to establish dose-response relationships for epidemiological and risk assessment purposes, it is vital to determine the exposures of individuals or cohorts as functions of time. Most existing occupational exposure databases, however, do not contain continuous records of historical exposures to airborne contaminants. These gaps in the historical record may be filled by using the knowledge base that experts and professionals in the field possess. In this article we present a new framework, based on Bayesian probabilistic reasoning, for obtaining estimates of exposure histories for airborne particulates from limited historical measurements, using subjective expert judgment. The framework has great potential applications in instances where there is sparse information or missing data on past exposures. Expert judgment, in the form of inputs to physical models, provides additional knowledge to retrospectively estimate exposure as a function of time from discrete and incomplete measurements. The expert judgments are informed by knowledge of historical plant conditions and work practices, and models describing process-dependent aerosol generation, ventilation, and worker activity patterns. The result will be probability distributions of the exposure of task-groups of workers as a function of time, in the form of a matrix. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Epidemiology Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Dose Response Exposure Levels Models Risk Analysis Risk Factors Statistical Analysis Work Environment
• ISSN:
  1047-322X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  14
• Issue:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031342
• Citation:
  Appl Occup Environ Hyg 1999 Aug; 14(8):547-557
• Contact Point Address:
  Gurumurthy Ramachandran, PhD, CIH, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Box 807, Mayo, 420 Deleware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Risk Assessment Methods
• Performing Organization:
  School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19970401
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20000331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8869309ec172dabc61db1da382e1d9c1459fbeb1ebb9873e38fc06069195602322a49b5b92acb5a2b8123972c23f2de0cf5457e19875276107cb362a7c1b8631
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191610/cdc_191610_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 426.91 KB ]