van Wijngaarden Edwin, Stewart Patricia A
Applied Epidemiology, Inc., Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Appl Occup Environ Hyg. 2003 Sep;18(9):678-93. doi: 10.1080/10473220301376.
This article presents the results of an extensive literature review identifying the uses or occurrences of, and exposures to, benzene in a variety of industries for a community-based case-control study of childhood brain cancer in the United States and Canada. We focused on industries for which quantitative exposure data were identified in studies conducted in North America in the 1980s. Each industry was coded according to the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. For each industry, information relevant to exposure assessment, including process descriptions, job titles, tasks, and work practices, was summarized when available. Estimates of probability and intensity of exposure, and our confidence in these estimates are presented. Arithmetic means (AMs), weighted for the number of measurements for each industry, were calculated based on measurement data from long-term (i.e., 60+ minutes) personal sampling; short-term or area samples were only used when no other data were available for a given industry. Industries for which no quantitative exposure levels were identified in the North American literature but for which information was found on benzene use are briefly described. Published exposure data indicate that workers in most industries in the 1980s experienced exposure levels below the current standard of 1 part per million (ppm), with a weighted AM of 0.33 ppm across all industries. Despite the longtime recognition of the hematological effects of benzene, little information was available on exposure levels and determinants for many industries with potential exposure. Nevertheless, this review may clarify some of the procedures involved in assessing occupational exposures in community-based studies and may aid in the interpretation of previous occupational studies that relied on job title or industry.
本文介绍了一项广泛的文献综述结果，该综述旨在确定在美国和加拿大针对儿童脑癌开展的社区病例对照研究中，各种行业中苯的使用、出现情况及接触情况。我们关注的是20世纪80年代在北美进行的研究中确定了定量接触数据的行业。每个行业都根据1987年标准产业分类（SIC）系统进行编码。对于每个行业，在有可用信息时，会总结与接触评估相关的信息，包括工艺描述、职位名称、任务和工作实践。给出了接触概率和强度的估计值以及我们对这些估计值的置信度。基于长期（即60分钟以上）个人采样的测量数据，计算了按每个行业测量次数加权的算术平均值（AM）；只有在给定行业没有其他数据可用时，才使用短期或区域样本。对北美文献中未确定定量接触水平但发现有苯使用信息的行业进行了简要描述。已发表的接触数据表明，20世纪80年代大多数行业的工人接触水平低于当前百万分之一（ppm）的标准，所有行业的加权算术平均值为0.33 ppm。尽管长期以来人们已经认识到苯对血液的影响，但对于许多可能接触苯的行业，关于接触水平和决定因素的信息却很少。然而，本综述可能会阐明在基于社区的研究中评估职业接触所涉及的一些程序，并可能有助于解释以前依赖职位名称或行业的职业研究。
