EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

Activities: NIOSH Research Projects

NIOSH conducts intramural research on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis in its research divisions. Some projects involved extensive leveraging and collaboration with external partners.

Examples of past and current research in the area of exposure assessment include:

Ergonomic Exposure Assessment – Observational Accuracy

The purpose of this project was to quantify the accuracy of ergonomists in estimating levels of work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) risk factors by observation and by using this knowledge to develop recommendations for improving observational exposure assessment methods. The accuracy of observational exposure/risk assessment methods in field studies remains a critical concern in exposure assessment of WMSD.

Project Contact: Brian Lowe
(513) 841-4200
Project period: 1999-2003

NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods Cooperative Research

This project leverages outside expertise in developing new analytical methods for the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods (NMAM). Collaborating laboratories that do not have the expertise available within NIOSH are given financial and technical assistance to develop new methods and evaluate those already used in their laboratories for determining hazardous substances in the workplace environment. When the methods have been shown to meet the NIOSH evaluation criteria, they are added to the NMAM, which is widely used (by industrial hygiene and environmental laboratories, universities, state and federal agencies, etc.) in hazard evaluations and industrial and engineering control studies. These new methods will be used to monitor workplace exposures by field investigators inside and outside NIOSH, and to increase capacity among industrial hygiene laboratories for high quality methods development. The primary objective of the investigation was to examine the distributional behavior of the two estimators of attenuation bias using empirical and analytical methods. Variability in exposure over time can induce error in exposure assessment and thereby diminish measures of effect in epidemiologic studies. The investigation approach was to quantify the degree of measurement error in measures of exposure, assess the consequences of exposure measurement error in attenuating regression results, and make comparisons on the basis of attenuation bias between multiple exposure measures to the same contaminant.

Project Contact: Paul Schlect
(513) 841-4200
Project period: 1999-2008