Epidemiologic problems associated with exposure to several agents.

Simultaneous exposure to many potentially hazardous agents in the environment is the rule, yet there have been few studies that have addressed the issue of interactions of these agents in modifying disease outcomes, even though such interactions may potentially be important in terms of policy-making. Epidemiological methods may be an important way to identify interaction effects, especially for chronic disease outcomes. Some examples of epidemiologic investigations of this problem are given, and a matrix method used to evaluate the contribution of nineteen chemicals to the risk of liver angiosarcoma in vinyl chloride workers is discussed.