Source identification for multiple chemical exposure using pattern recognition and classification techniques

Details

• Personal Author:
  Simmons BP ; Spear RC
• Description:
  The use of pattern recognition techniques for characterizing occupational exposure to organic solvents in a printing/reproduction facility was described. The facility included shops for printing, photolithography, binding, and polycopy. The study group consisted of 18 exposed workers; five workers from other parts of the same building served as controls. Breathing zone samples were collected during normal working hours on each day for 1 week using passive samplers and charcoal tubes. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the printing air samples produced two statistically significant components. Soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) accurately classified 95% of the samples. Using the same air exposure data, classification and regression trees (CART) analysis correctly classified 91% of the cases. PCA plus CART analysis identified sources of exposure and verified that exposure classification of workers by job type corresponded closely to the exposures measured using personal sampling. The authors note that the usefulness of this system over other techniques is both an improved identification of the sources of exposure and an improved characterization of how these sources interact at the point of the individual. The authors conclude that pattern recognition techniques are easily able to identify characteristic patterns of mixed chemical exposure. Since these patterns of exposure are based on actual multiple measurements of exposure, they therefore provide a more accurate classification of exposure than job classification does. Finally, classification becomes less effective as exposures approach the limits of sampling and analysis. The technique can be used to successfully reduce multivariate exposure measurement to a few summary variables. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Chemistry Chemistry, Analytic Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Printing Safety Solvents
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-monitoring Air-sampling Analytical-chemistry Analytical-methods Chemical-analysis Grants-other Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality NIOSH-Grant NIOSH-Publication Organic-solvents Printing-industry Publishing-and-printing

  More +
• ISSN:
  0013-936X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  27
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00218042
• Citation:
  Environ Sci Technol 1993 Nov; 27(12):2430-2434
• Contact Point Address:
  Biomedical & Environ Hlth Scis University of California 322 Warren Hall Berkeley, Calif 94720
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• NORA Priority Area:
  Grants Other
• Performing Organization:
  University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19880930
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Science and Technology
• End Date:
  19900929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5580986920746fb0b02211c20b8a7f203bb1391437cd0d5e862d14bf32106083e62aef82e574841d2231389fee9e04bc0df78930b0ff4f88f0fe3da38c758543
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/205618/cdc_205618_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 514.55 KB ]