Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, International St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic Kwandong University, Incheon, Korea.
Department of Statistics, Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea.
Ann Work Expo Health. 2018 Feb 13;62(2):210-220. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxx106.
Estimating carcinogen exposure prevalence is important for preventing occupational cancers. To develop the Korean version of CARcinogen EXposure (CAREX), a carcinogen surveillance system used in many countries, we estimated lead exposure prevalence in the Korean working population.
We used three Korean nationwide data sources to obtain objective database-derived prevalences of lead exposure across industries: airborne lead measurement data from the work environment measurement database (WEMD), blood lead measurement data from the special health examination database (SHED), and lead exposure prevalence computed using data from the work environment condition survey (WECS), which is a nationwide occupational exposure survey. We also asked a panel of 52 experts with ≥20 years of experience in industrial hygiene practice for their judgment about lead exposure prevalence across industries after they reviewed the database-derived prevalences computed from the three exposure databases. We developed and compared various estimation methods for combining the experts' judgments. The 2010 census was used as the reference population to estimate the number of lead-exposed workers in 228 industries by multiplying the exposure prevalence by the number of workers in each industry.
The database-derived prevalences of lead exposure in the 228 industries were calculated using data collected between 2009 and 2011 from the WEMD and SHED and from the 2009 WECS. From the various estimation methods assessed, the median values of experts' responses were selected as our estimates of lead exposure prevalence in each industry. As a result, it was estimated that 129,250 Korean workers were exposed to lead in 2010.
Based on objective databases, we developed a method for estimating exposure prevalence for the CAREX system by combining experts' judgments. This work may offer an unbiased approach to the development process that accounts for the uncertainty in exposure.
估计致癌物接触的流行率对于预防职业癌症很重要。为了开发在许多国家使用的致癌物暴露监测系统（CARcinogen EXposure，CAREX）的韩语版本，我们估计了韩国劳动人口的铅暴露流行率。
我们使用了三个韩国全国性的数据来源，以获得跨行业的空气传播铅暴露的客观数据库衍生流行率：工作环境测量数据库（WEMD）中的空气铅测量数据、特殊健康检查数据库（SHED）中的血铅测量数据，以及使用工作环境条件调查（WECS）数据计算的铅暴露流行率，WECS 是一项全国性的职业暴露调查。我们还请了 52 名专家组成专家组，他们在审查了从三个暴露数据库计算得出的数据库衍生流行率后，对跨行业的铅暴露流行率做出判断。我们开发并比较了结合专家判断的各种估计方法。2010 年人口普查被用作参考人口，将暴露流行率乘以每个行业的工人数量，以估计 228 个行业中接触铅的工人数量。
使用 2009 年至 2011 年期间从 WEMD 和 SHED 以及 2009 年 WECS 收集的数据，计算了 228 个行业的铅暴露数据库衍生流行率。在所评估的各种估计方法中，选择了专家回复的中位数作为我们对每个行业的铅暴露流行率的估计值。结果表明，2010 年有 129,250 名韩国工人接触到了铅。
基于客观数据库，我们结合专家判断开发了一种用于 CAREX 系统的暴露流行率估计方法。这项工作可能为开发过程提供了一种无偏的方法，考虑了暴露的不确定性。
