Inverse Probability Weighting to Estimate Impacts of Hypothetical Occupational Limits on Radon Exposure to Reduce Lung Cancer

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bertke S ; Daniels, Robert D. ; Edwards JK ; Keil AP ; Kelly-Reif K ; Lan Q ; Li Y
• Description:
  Radon is a known cause of lung cancer. Protective standards for radon exposure are derived largely from studies of working populations that are prone to healthy worker survivor bias. This bias can lead to under-protection of workers and is a key barrier to understanding health effects of many exposures. We apply inverse probability weighting to study a set of hypothetical exposure limits among 4,137 male, White and American Indian radon-exposed uranium miners in the Colorado Plateau followed from 1950 to 2005. We estimate cumulative risk of lung cancer through age 90 under hypothetical occupational limits. We estimate that earlier implementation of the current US Mining Safety and Health Administration annual standard of 4 working level months (implemented here as a monthly exposure limit) could have reduced lung cancer mortality from 16/100 workers to 6/100 workers (95% confidence intervals: 3/100, 8/100), in contrast with previous estimates of 10/100 workers. Our estimate is similar to that among contemporaneous occupational cohorts. Inverse probability weighting is a simple and computationally efficient way address healthy worker survivor bias in order to contrast health effects of exposure limits and estimate the number of excess health outcomes under exposure limits at work. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Lung Lung Diseases Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Uranium
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Healthy Worker Survivor Bias Causal Inference Inverse Probability Weighting Lung Cancer Mortality Rates Occupational Occupational Exposure Limits OELs Radon Uranium Miners
• ISSN:
  0002-9262
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; North Carolina ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering ; WTCHP - World Trade Center Health Program
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070054
• Citation:
  Am J Epidemiol 2024 Aug; :[Epub ahead of print]
• Contact Point Address:
  Alexander Keil, 9609 Medical Center Dr., Rockville, MD USA 20892
• Email:
  alex.keil@nih.gov
• CAS Registry Number:
  Radon (CAS RN 10043-92-2)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Epidemiology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d5dd6ad467b9382267a561d20ec6a58ca46dedf67789ab31aa4dd00a5b055a753a4d6eb9f41beacb117c557304fcdc2265900407991c9a6cd87b422c8f33b3ee
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208352/cdc_208352_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.37 MB ]