Respiratory Diseases and Exposure to Elongated Mineral Particles in Taconite Ore

描述（由申请人提供）：缺乏关于非石棉状细长矿物颗粒（EMP）对健康影响的明确研究，并且缺乏关于EMP与健康相关的适当阈值尺寸的一致意见。NIOSH关于石棉纤维和其他电磁脉冲的研究路线图（2011年）将明尼苏达州东北部的铁燧岩矿工确定为应进一步研究并详细描述暴露特征的人群。我们的目标是解决非石棉的电磁脉冲的健康影响的问题，以及各种假设的电磁脉冲的适当尺寸，可能是相关的呼吸系统健康。先前的研究收集了大量的个人过滤器样本，使用NIOSH 7400/7402分析了EMP。所有这些个人样本也已存档，供今后使用。我们首先建议使用ISO TEM 13794重新分析这些样本，该标准将提供有关尺寸、矿物学和习惯的详细信息，并使用不同的基于尺寸的暴露度量获得个人暴露的估计。其次，我们将根据这些暴露指标开发和验证类似暴露组（SEG）。第三，我们将获得每个SEG的不同暴露度量之间的关系（转换因子），并将这些转换因子应用于历史数据，以根据这些暴露度量获得每个SEG的暴露历史。第四，我们将使用队列中每个工人的估计暴露历史和就业历史，根据每个暴露度量计算他们的累积暴露。第五，我们将估计间皮瘤，肺癌和流行的非恶性呼吸道疾病与这些接触，无论是通过自己和存在的呼吸性粉尘和二氧化硅暴露的风险。为此目的，收集了大量工作人员的健康结果数据，这些数据具有越来越高的特异性-死亡率、肺癌发病率、呼吸系统发病率指标-肺活量测定法、胸部X光检查等。这些信息沿着暴露测量值将用于解决非石棉型电磁脉冲对健康影响的问题，以及关于可能与呼吸系统健康相关的电磁脉冲适当尺寸的各种假设

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a lack of well-defined studies regarding the health effects of non-asbestiform elongated mineral particles (EMPs), and a lack of agreement on the appropriate threshold dimensions of EMPs that are health- relevant. The NIOSH Roadmap for Research relating to asbestos fibers and other EMPs (2011) identifies the taconite miners of northeastern Minnesota as a population that should be studied further with detailed exposure characterization. We aim to address the question of health effects of non-asbestiform EMPs, and also the various hypotheses regarding the appropriate dimensions of the EMPs that may be relevant to respiratory health. A previous study has collected large number of personal filter samples that have been analyzed for EMPs using NIOSH 7400/7402. All these personal samples obtained have also been archived for future use. We first propose to re-analyze these samples using ISO TEM 13794 that will provide detailed information on dimension, mineralogy, and habit, and obtain estimates of personal exposures using different dimension-based exposure metrics. Second, we will develop and validate similarly exposed groups (SEGs) based on these exposure metrics. Third, we will obtain relationships (conversion factors) between the different exposure metrics for each SEG, and apply these conversion factors to the historical data to obtain exposure histories of each SEG according to these exposure metrics. Fourth, we will use the estimated exposure histories and employment histories of each worker in the cohort to calculate their cumulative exposures according to each exposure metric. Fifth, we will estimate the risk of mesothelioma, lung cancer and prevalent non-malignant respiratory disease associated with those exposures, both by themselves and in the presence of respirable dust and silica exposures. For this purpose, a large cohort of workers has been assembled with health outcome data with increasing levels of specificity- mortality, incidence of lung cancer, indicators of respiratory morbidity - spirometry, chest X-rays, etc. that have already been collected. This information along with the exposure measurements will be used to address the question of health effects of non-asbestiform EMPs, and also the various hypotheses regarding the appropriate dimensions of the EMPs that may be relevant to respiratory health