National Exposure Survey Data Base

SETA, J.A., YOUNG, R.O., BERNSTEIN, I.L. BERNSTEIN, D.I. (1993) The United States National Exposure Survey (NOES) Data Base, in BERNSTEIN, I. L., CHAN-YEUNG, M., MALO, J.-L. BERNSTEIN, D.I. (Eds) Asthma in the Workplace, pp. 626-663. New York Marcel Dekker. 

J.P. Robinson and W.C. Nelson, National Human Activity Pattern Survey Data Base, U.S. EPA, Atmospheric Research and Exposure Assessment Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC, 1995. Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, 3 CFR 1072. 

SieberWK, Sundin DS, Frazier TM, et al. 1991. Development, use, and availability of a job exposure matrix based on national occupational hazard survey data. Amer J Ind Med 20 163-174. 

An estimated 21,156, 33,257, 11,162, and 1,261,818 workers were potentially exposed to o-, p-, m-, and the mixture of isomers, respectively, in the workplace, according to the National Occupational Hazard Survey (NOHS) conducted between 1972 and 1974 (NIOSH 1984). According to the National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES) conducted by NIOSH in the workplace between 1980 and 1983, 3,214, 3,269, 5,573, and 121,573 workers were potentially exposed to o-, p-, m-, and the mixture of isomers, respectively (NIOSH 1989). Neither the NOHS nor NOES data bases contain information on the frequency, concentration, or duration of exposure of workers to any of the chemicals listed therein. These surveys provide estimates of the number of workers potentially exposed to the chemicals in the workplace. The most probable routes of occupational exposure are inhalation and dermal contact at places where cresols and/or cresol-containing compounds are produced or used. 

The UK Total Diet Study (TDS) relies on nationally representative information about the average food consumption by individual households researched in the UK National Food Survey (based on a survey of approximately 7000 households).2,3 Typical diets are constructed based on these data. Foodstuffs are purchased from retail outlets, then prepared and cooked in the normal manner. The individual foodstuffs are then usually combined into various groups of similar foods - for example cereals, green vegetables and fish - in the proportions eaten on average by consumers. Population dietary exposures can then be calculated using data from the TDS samples. 

Preliminary data from a second workplace survey, the National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES), conducted by NIOSH from 1980 to 1983, indicated that 1,957 workers, including 272 women, were potentially exposed to 1,1-dichloroethane in the workplace in 1980 (NIOSH 1984). The exposed workers were employed in the chemical and allied products and business service industries, as chemical technicians plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters supervisors in production occupations electricians machinists chemical engineers and welders and cutters. The estimates were based on direct observation by the surveyor of the actual use of the compound (100%). 

An important step in assuring the safety of new food ingredients, such as fat substitutes, is the calculation of the level of exposure to an individual if the product is approved for use. This step is referred to as exposure assessment (15). It is necessary to use an exposure assessment model that is based on food consumption data from national probability surveys. These surveys indicate both the frequency of consumption and the serving size of individual foods. When estimated exposure levels proved to be higher than safety data, they can be lowered by limiting product content or the categories of food in which the product may be used (15). 

NIOSH offers search on request of its two primary data bases NIOSHTIC and the National Occupational Hazard Survey (NOHS). The first provides abstracts and citations on published literature dealing with occupational safety and health, the latter is a survey to determine occupational exposure in United States workplaces. 

NIOSH s National Occupational Hazard Survey is the sole data base on occupational exposure in the United States. A one-time effort was conducted in 1973 in which approximately 5000 United States workplaces were surveyed for information on the number of workers, products, exposure, etc. Exposure statistics from this data base should be evaluated in terms of the limited data collection effort and assumptions used in aggregating data. 

To determine the industries likely to use a chemical, the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, the Organic Chemical Producers Data Base, and the National Occupational Hazard Survey may be of help. This last source represents the only comprehensive industrial exposure survey. Under its mandate in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, NIOSH conducted a two and a half year statistically structured survey of United States workplaces to determine the levels of chemicals, trademark products, or physical agents to which workers were being exposed by job title. The Inventory of Chemicals in Commerce recently assembled by EPA s Office of Toxic Substances also contains data on chemical production by site as well as a coded production volume. EPA can also use Section 8 of TSCA to collect chemical use data, but has not done so to date. 

These are estimates of dietary exposure to inorganic contaminants for individuals who eat average amounts of food (i.e. mean consumers) and those who eat more than average (i.e. upper range (97.5th percentile) consumers) and are based on consumption data from the UK National Adult Dietary Survey (NADS).4 They are calculated using the mean upper bound concentrations of specific contaminants in each food group and the consumption data from the NADS. Consumer exposure estimates are less suitable for following trends in exposure than population estimates as they are based on consumption data from the NADS which was carried out only once in 1986 and 1987 and is not updated... 

In the UK, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food and the Department of Health have conducted four sets of food consumption surveys between 1983 and 1997. These surveys make up the UK s National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) program. The UK has conducted surveys for infants [15], schoolchildren [16], adults [17], and most recently, yoimg people [18]. The food consumption information from these surveys is used for the various UK dietary exposure models, including the TMDI and the NESTI calculations. Elsewhere in the EU, dietary risk assessments may be based upon national food consultation surveys, such as the German data [20], or upon the regional diets... 

AFBi dietary exposure estimates were assessed in Japan based on food consumption data from the 2005 National Health and Nutrition Survey for 2 consecutive days (17 827 individuals). Surveillance data on AFBi concentration levels were available from a retail food survey, with samples purchased in a random manner from local supermarkets and small retail shops in all parts of Japan from the summer of 2004 to the winter of 2006 (Sugita-Konishi et al., 2007). Foods analysed included peanut, peanut butter, chocolate, pistachio, spices, almond, job s tears tea and buckwheat. A probabilistic approach was used to simulate the dietary exposure distributions in each age group with three different scenarios of MLs of AFT in tree nuts (10, 15 and 20 pg/kg), following the same methodology as described previously for the EFSA opinion and assuming a lognormal distribution for occurrence data. 

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