Bracken T D, Kheifets L I, Sussman S S
T. Dan Bracken, Inc., Portland, Oregon 97202.
J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol. 1993 Jan-Mar;3(1):1-22.
Epidemiologic studies suggesting possible health effects associated with exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMF) from the transmission, distribution, and use of electricity have motivated increased interest in and attention to EMF exposure assessment. The result has been new instruments, measurement approaches, and exposure models that can improve on what has been a weakness in past epidemiologic studies, namely EMF exposure assessment. This paper presents a status report on EMF exposure assessment that emphasizes the need for incorporation of these advances in future studies. Several factors are identified that make the assignment of contemporary or retrospective EMF exposures potentially more difficult than for other environmental agents. These include: EMF is not generally detectable by humans, exposure scenarios for EMF are generally not memorable, there is no clear mechanism for EMF effects, and the pervasive nature of EMF in an industrialized society makes identification of a low-exposure group difficult. Elements of study design that are impacted by the nature of EMF exposures include: sampling and measurement strategies, summary measures of exposure, and the choice of surrogate and/or models of exposure. Consideration of these exposure assessment issues and incorporation of recent advances can improve the overall quality of epidemiologic studies with an EMF exposure component.
流行病学研究表明，接触输电、配电和用电过程中产生的电场和磁场（EMF）可能对健康产生影响，这激发了人们对EMF暴露评估的更多兴趣和关注。结果催生了新的仪器、测量方法和暴露模型，这些能够改进过去流行病学研究中的一个薄弱环节，即EMF暴露评估。本文给出了一份关于EMF暴露评估的现状报告，强调在未来研究中纳入这些进展的必要性。文中确定了几个因素，这些因素使得确定当代或回顾性EMF暴露可能比确定其他环境因素的暴露更困难。这些因素包括：EMF一般无法被人类察觉，EMF的暴露场景通常难以记住，EMF产生影响的机制尚不明确，而且在工业化社会中EMF无处不在，这使得确定低暴露组很困难。受EMF暴露性质影响的研究设计要素包括：采样和测量策略、暴露的汇总指标，以及暴露替代指标和/或模型的选择。考虑这些暴露评估问题并纳入最新进展，可以提高包含EMF暴露因素的流行病学研究的整体质量。
