Assessing occupational styrene exposure in the European and US Glass Reinforced Plastics Industry for the period between 1947 and 2020

IF 4.5 2区医学 Q1 INFECTIOUS DISEASES

International journal of hygiene and environmental health Pub Date : 2024-12-05 DOI:10.1016/j.ijheh.2024.114494

Yvette Christopher-de Vries , Igor Burstyn , Mette Wulf Christensen , Hilde Notø , Kurt Straif , Eero Pukkala , Vivi Schlünssen , Stephen Bertke , Martie van Tongeren , Henrik A. Kolstad , Damien McElvenny , Ioannis Basinas

{"title":"Assessing occupational styrene exposure in the European and US Glass Reinforced Plastics Industry for the period between 1947 and 2020","authors":"Yvette Christopher-de Vries , Igor Burstyn , Mette Wulf Christensen , Hilde Notø , Kurt Straif , Eero Pukkala , Vivi Schlünssen , Stephen Bertke , Martie van Tongeren , Henrik A. Kolstad , Damien McElvenny , Ioannis Basinas","doi":"10.1016/j.ijheh.2024.114494","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>We aimed to develop a method for assessing occupational styrene exposures for application in epidemiological studies on risks of lymphohematopoietic neoplasms and other malignant and non-malignant diseases in the European and the US glass reinforced plastics industries.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>We estimated a linear mixed effects model based on individual airborne personal measurements of styrene from the glass reinforced plastics industry in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK, and the US. The most suitable model was chosen based on its predictive power as assessed using cross validation with different combinations of predictors; and by comparing their prediction errors.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We created a database containing 21,201 personal and area measurements but a subset of 14,440 personal measurements that spanned a period from 1962 to 2018, were used in the analysis. The selected model included fixed effects for year, sampling duration, measurement reason, product, process and random effects for country and worker. There was strong agreement between the model's predictions and actual exposure values indicating a good fit (Lin's CCC: 0.85 95% CI 0.84, 0.85). There were regional differences in exposure levels, with the UK and the US having comparable exposures that were higher than those in the Nordic countries. Higher exposures were consistent with measurements collected for inspection purposes, the lamination process, and specific products. Styrene exposure levels have decreased annually on average by 7%.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Our exposure model and the resulting exposure predictions will enable estimation of lifetime occupational exposure for individual workers in the European and the US glass reinforced plastics industry and possibly related health risks among employees. The approach facilitates understanding of the uncertainty in our prediction model and can inform analysis of the bias that application of our exposure assessment approach can produce in epidemiologic analyses of exposure-response associations. Addressing systematic sources of bias can increase confidence in the conclusions of the epidemiologic analysis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13994,"journal":{"name":"International journal of hygiene and environmental health","volume":"264 ","pages":"Article 114494"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International journal of hygiene and environmental health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1438463924001755","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

We aimed to develop a method for assessing occupational styrene exposures for application in epidemiological studies on risks of lymphohematopoietic neoplasms and other malignant and non-malignant diseases in the European and the US glass reinforced plastics industries.

Method

We estimated a linear mixed effects model based on individual airborne personal measurements of styrene from the glass reinforced plastics industry in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK, and the US. The most suitable model was chosen based on its predictive power as assessed using cross validation with different combinations of predictors; and by comparing their prediction errors.

Results

We created a database containing 21,201 personal and area measurements but a subset of 14,440 personal measurements that spanned a period from 1962 to 2018, were used in the analysis. The selected model included fixed effects for year, sampling duration, measurement reason, product, process and random effects for country and worker. There was strong agreement between the model's predictions and actual exposure values indicating a good fit (Lin's CCC: 0.85 95% CI 0.84, 0.85). There were regional differences in exposure levels, with the UK and the US having comparable exposures that were higher than those in the Nordic countries. Higher exposures were consistent with measurements collected for inspection purposes, the lamination process, and specific products. Styrene exposure levels have decreased annually on average by 7%.

Conclusion

Our exposure model and the resulting exposure predictions will enable estimation of lifetime occupational exposure for individual workers in the European and the US glass reinforced plastics industry and possibly related health risks among employees. The approach facilitates understanding of the uncertainty in our prediction model and can inform analysis of the bias that application of our exposure assessment approach can produce in epidemiologic analyses of exposure-response associations. Addressing systematic sources of bias can increase confidence in the conclusions of the epidemiologic analysis.

查看原文本刊更多论文

评估1947年至2020年期间欧洲和美国玻璃增强塑料工业的职业苯乙烯暴露。

背景：我们旨在开发一种评估职业苯乙烯暴露的方法，用于欧洲和美国玻璃钢工业中淋巴造血肿瘤和其他恶性和非恶性疾病风险的流行病学研究。方法：我们根据丹麦、挪威、瑞典、英国和美国玻璃增强塑料工业中苯乙烯的个人空气测量数据估计了一个线性混合效应模型。通过交叉验证对不同预测因子组合的预测能力进行评估，选择最合适的模型；通过比较他们的预测误差。结果：我们创建了一个包含21,201个个人和区域测量数据的数据库，但分析中使用了1962年至2018年期间14,440个个人测量数据的子集。所选模型包括年份、采样时间、测量原因、产品、过程的固定效应和国家、工人的随机效应。模型的预测和实际暴露值之间有很强的一致性，表明拟合良好（Lin’s CCC: 0.85 95% CI 0.84, 0.85）。暴露水平存在地区差异，英国和美国的暴露水平高于北欧国家。较高的暴露量与为检验目的、层压过程和特定产品而收集的测量值一致。苯乙烯暴露水平平均每年下降7%。结论：我们的暴露模型和由此产生的暴露预测将能够估计欧洲和美国玻璃钢行业个体工人的终身职业暴露以及员工可能存在的相关健康风险。该方法有助于理解我们的预测模型中的不确定性，并可以为应用我们的暴露评估方法在暴露-反应关联的流行病学分析中可能产生的偏差分析提供信息。解决系统的偏倚来源可以增加对流行病学分析结论的信心。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International journal of hygiene and environmental health 医学-传染病学

CiteScore

11.50

自引率

5.00%

发文量

151

审稿时长

22 days

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health serves as a multidisciplinary forum for original reports on exposure assessment and the reactions to and consequences of human exposure to the biological, chemical, and physical environment. Research reports, short communications, reviews, scientific comments, technical notes, and editorials will be peer-reviewed before acceptance for publication. Priority will be given to articles on epidemiological aspects of environmental toxicology, health risk assessments, susceptible (sub) populations, sanitation and clean water, human biomonitoring, environmental medicine, and public health aspects of exposure-related outcomes.