Statistical Analyses for Assessing Space-Time Exposure Data

描述(由申请人提供)：暴露评估的技术进步是干预、控制和合规的必要组成部分，最近提高了便携式直读监测仪的准确性、可靠性和可负担性。这些监测仪可以快速评估工人暴露在职业危害中的情况。通过将估计的暴露量与已知地点相结合，工业卫生员有能力将暴露量与特定来源联系起来。危险在空间上集中的等高线图，称为集中图，最近已被用来评估危险的空间变异性。集中图具有强大的潜力，因为经理、接触过的员工和职业健康科学家很容易理解它们，以定位关注的区域。减少或消除这些领域的暴露将改善工人的健康。虽然我们认为直读仪器在帮助识别和减轻工作场所暴露危险方面有很大的潜力，但在不了解与这种新形式的暴露评估相关的不确定性的情况下应用这种方法可能是危险的。到目前为止，还没有统计框架应用于这些地图。该项目的目标是评估用直读仪器收集的工作场所暴露数据分析的几种统计方法。这个项目有三个具体目标。首先，我们将使用空间统计映射方法来使用先前收集的暴露数据集来建立可靠的映射暴露估计和置信度区间。其次，我们将收集作为噪声水平和气溶胶浓度暴露的时间和空间函数的危险浓度的综合数据集。第三，我们将从高时间和空间分辨率的数据集生成参考浓度图，根据该图我们可以评估更简单的统计模型。 公共卫生相关性：暴露评估的主要目的是确定和预防可能导致不良健康后果的工作场所条件。暴露评估方法依赖于对健康危害进行定量测量的能力。技术的进步使直接读数仪器能够以比以往任何时候更低的成本评估危害的时间变异性。最近，有人努力使用这种仪器来绘制室内危险浓度的地图。然而，统计方法还没有被用来确定与这种技术相关的不确定性。采用空气污染文献中的方法，实施统计模型以生成危险集中度和不确定性地图，将有助于工业卫生从业者在保护工人健康方面做出明智的决定。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Technological advancements in exposure assessment, a necessary component of intervention, control, and compliance, have recently increased the accuracy, reliability, and affordability of portable, direct-reading monitors. These monitors can rapidly assess worker exposures to occupational hazards. By coupling the estimated exposure with a known location, an industrial hygienist has the ability to connect exposures to specific sources. Contour plots of the hazard concentration over space, known as concentration maps, have recently been used to assess the spatial variability of hazards. Concentration maps have the potential to be powerful because they are easily comprehensible for managers, exposed employees, and occupational health scientists to locate areas of concern. Reducing or eliminating exposures in these areas will improve worker health. While we believe there is great potential for direct-reading instruments to aid in the identification and mitigation of workplace exposure hazards, it can be dangerous to apply such a methodology without understanding the uncertainties associated with this new form of exposure assessment. To date, no statistical framework has been applied to these maps. The goal of this project is to evaluate several statistical approaches for the analysis of workplace exposure data collected with direct-reading instruments. There are three specific aims for this project. First, we will employ a spatial statistical mapping method to build reliable mapped exposure estimates and confidence intervals using a previously collected exposure dataset. Second, we will collect a comprehensive dataset of hazard concentration as a function of time and space for noise level and aerosol concentration exposures. Third, we will generate a reference concentration map from the high temporal and spatial resolution dataset, against which we may evaluate simpler statistical models. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The primary purpose of exposure assessment is to identify and prevent workplace conditions likely to cause adverse health outcomes. Exposure assessment methods rely on the ability to make quantitative measurements of health hazards. Advancements in technology have allowed for direct-reading instruments to be used to assess temporal variability of hazards at lower costs than ever before. Recently, there has been an effort to use such instruments to map hazard concentrations indoors. However, statistical methods have not been applied to determine the uncertainty associated with such techniques. Adapting methods from the air pollution literature, the implementation of a statistical model to produce maps of hazard concentration and uncertainties will aid industrial hygiene practitioners in making informed decisions on protecting worker health.