Development of a Region-Specific JEM for Exposure Surveillance

项目总结

Project Summary Occupational exposure surveillance is necessary for the identification of worker populations at risk of developing occupational disease and the prioritization of mitigation efforts but is largely absent from current US national occupational health surveillance systems. There is an urgent and unmet need for the development of surveillance methods and systems to facilitate the examination of occupational exposure trends in the US. The overall objective of the proposed study is to construct general-population job-exposure matrices (JEMs) for chemical hazards across industries in Michigan and Federal Region 5 and to assess exposure and overexposure trends and prevalence for single and mixed hazards. Aim 1 will involve the construction of these JEMs and the modeling of multiple indices of exposure as well as the trends in exposures over time across industries. Aim 2 will group these exposures according to shared adverse health effects and will quantify the potential for mixed exposures. Aim 3 will estimate the prevalence of exposures and overexposures across hazards and health effect groupings in Michigan and Region 5. The results of these aims will be used to target outreach, education, and interventions as part of an overarching occupational health surveillance program for Michigan operated through Michigan State University (MSU) and will be shared with the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) to aid in the prioritization of industries for compliance activities. This research will span NORA sectors and be relevant to the Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular and Other Disease Prevention, Immune, Infectious, and Dermal Disease Prevention, and Respiratory Health NORA cross-sectors. It will directly address NIOSH strategic and intermediate goals pertaining to exposure surveillance as well as providing an exposure assessment tool for future epidemiological studies supporting NIOSH goals relating to the characterization of relationships between exposures and adverse health outcomes. The project aligns with the NIOSH Research to Practice (r2P) approach, as the outcomes will be shared directly with MIOSHA and employer/employee groups with whom the MSU program has relationships in order to identify and reach at-risk worker groups for exposure mitigation. Through this project, Dr. Oliveri will complete a plan for career development that will involve a combination of mentorship from Drs. Kenneth Rosenman at MSU and Richard Neitzel at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UMSPH), experiential learning, and formal coursework. This plan will add to Dr. Oliveri’s experience and capabilities regarding exposure analysis and JEM construction, occupational health surveillance, occupational epidemiology, and advanced statistical techniques. The MSU Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and UMSPH Departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology will provide Dr. Oliveri with the resources and intellectual support necessary to complete the proposed career development and research activities.