Worker populations, surveillance

Surveillance. Surveillance of worker populations exposed to pesticides is done in conjunction with a company Occupational Health Program and its primary purpose is early detection and prevention of occupationally related illness. It involves analysis of the annual physical examination findings, illness-re lated-Worker s Compensation Claims and biomonitoring results. 

Hepatomegaly, jaundice, and altered liver function tests have been reported in accidental poisonings with DME An outbreak of toxic liver disease was associated with DME exposure at a fabric coating factory. Thirty-six of 58 workers had elevations of either aspartate aminotransferase or alanine aminotransferase. Serological tests excluded known infectious causes of hepatitis in all but two cases. After modification of work practices and removal of the most severely affected from exposure, improvement in liver enzyme abnormalities and symptoms occurred in most patients. Medical surveillance of the working population for 14 months revealed no further cases of toxic liver... 

It is challenging to extrapolate general surveillance data, particularly with limited health-effects data, to individual risk estimates without the genetic, external-exposure, lifestyle, and other data that a clinician could use to adjust population risk estimates for individual cases. As a result, previous comments about communication difficulties with respect to health implications apply far more to surveillance studies than they do to the interaction of a personal or occupational physician with an individual patient or worker on whom the physician also has extensive nonbiomarker information. For example, clinicians might in rare cases determine that BEIs are appropriate comparison values for a specific patient s biomarker concentrations. 

Cassitto MG, Bertazzi PA, Camerino D, et al Subjective and objective behavioural alterations in carbon disulphide workers. Med Lav 69 144-150, 1978 Cassitto MG, Camerino D, Imbriani M, et al Carbon disulfide and the central nervous system a 15-year neurobehavioral surveillance of an exposed population. Environ Res 63 252-263, 1993... 

Surveillance for plague activity in rodent populations by public health workers or by citizens reporting rodents found sick or dead to local health departments. 

How is the population under surveillance defined general population, workers from a certain occupation, or a certain plant, subpopulations, e.g., children, patients, consumers of certain products, e.g., cosmetics ... 

One approach for preventing adverse health effects to workers is occupational health surveillance. According to NIOSH, occupational health surveillance involves the "tracking of occupational injuries, illnesses, hazards, and exposures." Surveillance approaches include assessments of both individual- and group/population-based activities. Data obtained from health surveillance programs are used to "guide efforts to improve worker safety and health, and to monitor trends and progress over time."... 

---