Rice F L, Stayner L T
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Education and Information Division, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Scand J Work Environ Health. 1995;21 Suppl 2:87-90.
Epidemiologic studies of workers exposed to silica were reviewed to identify data on airborne concentrations of quartz that are not associated with an increased risk of silicosis, the lowest concentrations associated with silicosis, and studies that used statistical models to quantitate the risk of silicosis as a function of silica exposure. The no observed adverse effect levels varied from 7 to 100 mu g center dot m-3, and the lowest observed adverse effect levels ranged from 8 to 252 mu g center dot m-3 in five different cohorts. Studies using quantitative exposure-response models revealed a wide difference in the cumulative risk estimates for silicosis. The differences in the risk estimates and the no observed and lowest observed effect levels may have been the result of errors in exposure estimates, physicochemical characteristics of silica and quartz content of the dust, cohort differences, and reader variability. Further research is needed to define the dose-response relationship between silica exposure and silicosis.
对接触二氧化硅的工人进行了流行病学研究，以确定与矽肺病风险增加无关的空气中石英浓度数据、与矽肺病相关的最低浓度，以及使用统计模型将矽肺病风险量化为二氧化硅暴露函数的研究。在五个不同队列中，未观察到不良反应水平在7至100μg·m-3之间，最低观察到不良反应水平在8至252μg·m-3之间。使用定量暴露-反应模型的研究表明，矽肺病累积风险估计存在很大差异。风险估计以及未观察到和最低观察到的效应水平的差异可能是由于暴露估计误差、二氧化硅的物理化学特性和粉尘中的石英含量、队列差异以及读者变异性造成的。需要进一步研究来确定二氧化硅暴露与矽肺病之间的剂量-反应关系。
