Assessment of potential biases in the application of MSHA respirable coal mine dust data to an epidemiologic study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Moulton LH ; Rice CH ; Robins TG ; Seixas, Noah S.
• Description:
  An assessment of potential systematic errors was undertaken as part of the preparation to apply respirable coal mine dust exposure data collected by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to a study of the pulmonary status of underground coal miners. Potential errors stemming from adjustment of controls during sampling, concentration dependent sampling, truncation of sampling results, identified sampling equipment problems, and a disproportionate number of low concentration samples in mine operator collected samples were identified and evaluated. Methods to account for these errors and adjust mean exposures by mine, occupation, and year are given. Five potential biases that may affect the estimation of mean exposures for underground coal mines using MSHA compliance data have been evaluated. Adjustments made by inspectors or mine operators during MSHA inspections make data obtained by inspectors on face occupations unreliable for exposure estimation. Concentration dependent sampling by both operators and inspectors on face occupations may yield a positively biased mean. This problem may be avoided by estimating exposures as the mean of mine section means. Truncation of sample concentrations to the nearest decimal place will yield, overall, a bias of -0.03 or -0.05mg/m3. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Dust Epidemiology Mining Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Coal-dust Coal-mining Dust-sampling Mining-industry NIOSH-Grant NIOSH-Publication Occupational-exposure Pulmonary-system-disorders Respirable-dust
• ISSN:
  0002-8894
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  51
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00196788
• Citation:
  Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 1990 Oct; 51(10):534-540
• Contact Point Address:
  Environmental & Indust Health University of Michigan Dept of Envir/indust Health AN Arbor, MI 48109-2029
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• NORA Priority Area:
  Pulmonary System Disorders
• Performing Organization:
  University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19880930
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal
• End Date:
  19900929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:22e0f6ca07d1e247c1fe4edc8632bec4ad70abbfe87c99154da31e023adc82cc215761809a7b2bb0f706248a1e42a770560347422ac19985e7a57dcd5f758219
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/204202/cdc_204202_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 617.92 KB ]