Workshop Summary: Occupational Exposure Assessment: Investigating Why Exposure Measurements Vary

Abstract

In recent years occupational exposure assessment has received increasing attention in the scientific literature. This attention has mainly been focused on exposure assessment in epidemiology. Recently, two important and widely recognized working group meetings have set the stage for retrospective exposure assessment in epidemiology. In Europe a so-called concerted action was completely devoted to retrospective exposure assessment in epidemiology. Almost all these activities focus on retrospective exposure assessment. As a consequence, so-called qualitative or semi-quantitative exposure estimation strategies receive most attention. Exposure monitoring and quantitative exposure estimation in epidemiology received little attention, while strategies are as underdeveloped as for other exposure assessment strategies. Therefore a workshop was organized at the First International Scientific Conference of the International Occupational Hygiene Association (Brussels, December 10, 1992) to establish the {open_quotes}state of the art{close_quotes} in research of quantitative occupational exposure assessment. Because underlying phenomenons that cause exposure variability are similar for epidemiological exposure assessment, compliance testing, and other strategies applied in occupational hygiene, discussion was not limited to epidemiology. 3 refs.