Method for the preparation of epidemiologic data in the evaluation of danger caused by chronically acting pollutants (exemplified by chronic carbon disulfide poisoning)
Herramann, G.; Viehrig, H.
Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Hygiene und ihre Grenzgebiete 32(2): 85-88
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0049-8610 PMID: 3962387 Document Number: 276996
The usual form of the preparation of epidemiological data on the specific morbidity of chemical noxae gives insufficient weight to the dosage/effect principle. Present statistics on industrial diseases take a calendar year as a reference period, but do not take the number of victims into account. In order to relieve this deficiency, further data for the characterisation of the specific morbidity has been included in the epidemiological preparation: 1. The number of workers, who were operating in the exposed area during the period in which the indistrial disease is known to have originated. 2. The extent of the exposure for each of the workers operating in the area during the period specified under 1. On the basis of these data the affected group can be compared to the group as a whole and the risk of the occurrence of an industrial disease can be calculated. The critical value chosen here is the exposure-time product for which 5% of the cases of industrial disease occur with physical defects amounting to 20%. Fluctuation has a significant influence on the rate of the appropriate industrial disease.