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Integrating workplace exposure databases for occupational medicine services and epidemiologic studies at a former nuclear weapons facility

journal contribution
posted on 2001-01-01, 00:00 authored by A Ruttenber, J McCrea, T Wade, M Schonbeck, Tony LaMontagneTony LaMontagne, D Van, J Martyny
We outline methods for integrating epidemiologic and industrial hygiene data systems for the purpose of exposure estimation, exposure surveillance, worker notification, and occupational medicine practice. We present examples of these methods from our work at the Rocky Flats Plant?a former nuclear weapons facility that fabricated plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons and is now being decontaminated and decommissioned. The weapons production processes exposed workers to plutonium, gamma photons, neutrons, beryllium, asbestos, and several hazardous chemical agents, including chlorinated hydrocarbons and heavy metals. We developed a job exposure matrix (JEM) for estimating exposures to 10 chemical agents in 20 buildings for 120 different job categories over a production history spanning 34 years. With the JEM, we estimated lifetime chemical exposures for about 12,000 of the 16,000 former production workers. We show how the JEM database is used to estimate cumulative exposures over different time periods for epidemiological studies and to provide notification and determine eligibility for a medical screening program developed for former workers. We designed an industrial hygiene data system for maintaining exposure data for current cleanup workers. We describe how this system can be used for exposure surveillance and linked with the JEM and databases on radiation doses to develop lifetime exposure histories and to determine appropriate medical monitoring tests for current cleanup workers. We also present time-line-based graphical methods for reviewing and correcting exposure estimates and reporting them to individual workers.

History

Journal

Applied occupational and environmental hygiene

Volume

16

Issue

2

Pagination

192 - 200

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1521-0898

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2001, Taylor & Francis

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