Retrospective Exposure Assessment Methods Used in Occupational Human Health Risk Assessment: A Systematic Review

Abstract

As part of the assessment and management of chemical risk and occupational hygiene, retrospective exposure assessment (REA) to chemical agents can be defined as the estimate of exposure associated with a person’s work history. The fundamental problem underlying the reconstruction of the exposure is that of transforming this type of information in quantitative terms to obtain an accurate estimate. REA can follow various approaches, some of which are technically complicated and both time and resource consuming. The aim of this systematic review is to present the techniques mainly used for occupational REA. In order to carry out this evaluation, a systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted. Forty-four studies were identified (published from 2010 to date) and analyzed. In exposure reconstruction studies, quantitative approaches should be preferable, especially when estimates will be used in the context of health impact assessment or epidemiology, although it is important to stress how, ideally, the experimental data available for the considered scenario should be used whenever possible as the main starting information base for further processing. To date, there is no single approach capable of providing an accurate estimate of exposure for each reasonably foreseeable condition and situation and the best approach generally depends on the level of information available for the specific case. The use of a combination of different reconstruction techniques can, therefore, represent a powerful tool for weighting and integrating data obtained through qualitative and quantitative approaches, in order to obtain the best possible estimate.

Evaluating the Theoretical Background of STOFFENMANAGER® and the Advanced REACH Tool

“…The model reliability is strongly dependent on the level of information available for the specific case ( Borghi et al , 2020 ), similarly as in every exposure model. Multiplicative models have been applied successfully in retrospective exposure assessments for similar exposure groups ( Sahmel et al , 2010 ; Borghi et al , 2020 ).…”

Asbestos Exposure in Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma included in the PRIMATE Study, Lombardy, Italy

“…However, given a group-based approach and the associated Berkson-type error, it will result in no or little bias of risk estimates but with loss of precision [ 47 ]. On the other hand, the use of JEM alone allows to adopt an objective method, but which is not able to assess non-occupational exposure and which is not able to adequately assess occupational exposure heterogeneity, within-job (i.e., between-worker) variability, temporal (i.e., within-worker) variability and long-term trends in exposure [ 16 , 40 ]. Anyhow, it should be noted that results of a large multicenter study outlined when using the results of experts assessments and JEM in epidemiological analysis, both methods gave similar results as to whether occupational exposure to asbestos increases lung cancer risk.…”

“…In summary, there is no single approach capable of providing an accurate and comprehensive estimate of exposure considering all necessary contextual information; thus, the best approach to be adopted depends on the level of information available for the specific case and the required level of detail for results. Generally, using a combination of different REA techniques can represent a solution for weighting and integrating data obtained through qualitative and quantitative approaches to obtain the best possible estimate [ 16 ]. For this reason, although expert evaluation is considered the reference method for this study, both RML and SYN-JEM results will be used in PRIMATE.…”

“…This is due that (i) ARDs are characterized by a long latency (e.g., in the order of decades for MM) and because (ii) nowadays, several countries have banned or severely regulated asbestos (i.e., the ban from the Italian market dates back to 1992) [ 14 , 15 ]. Therefore, in these countries, except for operators still nowadays involved in asbestos removal (due to the widespread historical use of asbestos, there are still substantial quantities of this material in commercial, public and residential buildings), the scenarios of occupational exposure to asbestos fibers are no longer present and retrospective exposure assessment a necessity [ 2 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Sixteen-Year Monitoring of Particulate Matter Exposure in the Parisian Subway: Data Inventory and Compilation in a Database

“…Among these data, stationary measurements comprise the vast majority of results. According to Borghi et al, all types of measurements should be used to obtain the most accurate retrospective exposure assessment [52].…”