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Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 15;17(14):5114. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145114.
Both toxicology and epidemiology are used to inform hazard and risk assessment in regulatory settings, particularly for pesticides. While toxicology studies involve controlled, quantifiable exposures that are often administered according to standardized protocols, estimating exposure in observational epidemiology studies is challenging, and there is no established guidance for doing so. However, there are several frameworks for evaluating the quality of published epidemiology studies. We previously developed a preliminary list of methodology and reporting standards for epidemiology studies, called Good Epidemiology Practice (GEP) guidelines, based on a critical review of standardized toxicology protocols and available frameworks for evaluating epidemiology study quality. We determined that exposure characterization is one of the most critical areas for which standards are needed. Here, we propose GEP guidelines for pesticide exposure assessment based on the source of exposure data (i.e., biomonitoring and environmental samples, questionnaire/interview/expert record review, and dietary exposures based on measurements of residues in food and food consumption). It is expected that these GEP guidelines will facilitate the conduct of higher-quality epidemiology studies that can be used as a basis for more scientifically sound regulatory risk assessment and policy making.
毒理学和流行病学都被用于为监管环境中的危害和风险评估提供信息，特别是对于农药而言。虽然毒理学研究涉及受控的、可量化的暴露，这些暴露通常是按照标准化方案进行管理的，但在观察性流行病学研究中估计暴露情况具有挑战性，而且目前没有为此制定的既定指导原则。然而，有几个框架可用于评估已发表的流行病学研究的质量。我们之前根据标准化毒理学方案的关键审查和现有的流行病学研究质量评估框架，制定了一个名为“良好流行病学实践（Good Epidemiology Practice，GEP）”指南的初步方法和报告标准清单，用于评估流行病学研究。我们确定，暴露特征描述是最需要制定标准的关键领域之一。在这里，我们根据暴露数据的来源（即生物监测和环境样本、问卷调查/访谈/专家记录审查，以及基于食物中残留测量值和食物消耗的膳食暴露），提出了农药暴露评估的 GEP 指南。预计这些 GEP 指南将促进开展更高质量的流行病学研究，这些研究可作为更具科学依据的监管风险评估和政策制定的基础。
