Surveillance of Occupational Risks Using Job-Exposure Matrices

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of surveillance of occupational risks of workers. Computer-assisted elaboration of the job history (JH) for each worker was achieved by means of a job-exposure matrix (JEM) for each company. The final aim of the project is to find correlations between the exposure data of JHs and the health data of corresponding medical records.

As a first experiment, some JEMs were computed using rectangular arrays even though it was realized that this simple structure was not really adequate. Later on, the structure of the computerized JEM included the following questions: (1) what types of information are involved; (2) how can the job-exposure correspondence be represented in the computer; (3) what characteristics of a company should be used for the elaboration of a JEM; (4) who is to construct each JEM, and how? This article shows the inadequacy of some occupational names for evoking the appropriate risks, a drawback which can be surmounted if the company organization is included in the JEM. Based on our analysis, several specifications useful for JEM computerization have been suggested.

Key-words

Job-Exposure Matrix - Job History - Surveillance - Occupational Risk Factors - Microcomputer

• REFERENCES

• 1 WHO. Surveillance de I’ Environnement et de la Santé en Médecine du Travail, Report of a Committee of Experts (no. 535). Geneva. 1973: 54.
• 2 US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Operations. Occupational Illness Data Collection: Fragmented, Unreliable, and Seventy Years Behind Communicable Disease Surveillance. Washington DC: Govt Printing Office; 1984
• 3 WHO. Identification et Prévention des Maladies Liées a la Profession. Report of a Committee of Experts (no. 714). Geneva, 1985; 82.
• 4 Robaux P, Martin JM. Le Curriculum Laboris: Un Curriculum Laboris, pour quoi faire?. Arch Mal Prof (acc. for publication).
• 5 Martin JM, Robaux P. Occupational Risks: A follow-up method based on individual work-history records including the environmental aspects of the workplace. Meth Inform Med 1989; 28: 148-54.
• 6 Martin JM, Mouaddib A, Robaux P. Computer-assisted elaboration of job-histories. Meth Inform Med 1990; 29: 146-52.
• 7 Martin JM, Robaux P, Bertrand JP. Surveillance informatisée des risques professionnels, méthode et réalisations. Proc Congrés Intern Med Trav Montreal: Sept 1990; 563.
• 8 Mouaddib A, Martin JM, Robaux P. et al. Un logiciel de constuction de Thistoire professionnelle de salariés. (to be published).
• 9 Berg M. Surveillance des risques professionnels: Analyse d’une méthode de reconstitution de carriére, au sein d’un systéme d’information, en amont d’études epidémiologiques (Thesis). Nancy I Médecine 1989; 83.
• 10 Coggon D, Pannett B. Acheson Use of job-exposure matrix in an occupational analysis of lung and bladder cancers on the basis of death certifications. JNCI 1984; 72: 61-5.
• 11 Gerin M, Siemiaticky J, Kemper H. et al. Translating job histories into histories of occupational exposure for epidemiological purpose. In: Ache-son ED. ed. Conference Report on Job-Exposure Matrices. University of Southampton (U.K.),; 1983: 8-82.
• 12 Gudbergsson H. Use of Job Exposure Matrices in the Nordic Countries. Copenhagen: Kraeftens Bekaempelse, Canceregisteret, 1988
• 13 Hinds MW, Kolonel LN, Lee J. Application of a job-exposure matrix to a case-control study of lung cancer. JNCI 1985; 75: 193-7.
• 14 Kauppinen T, Partanen T. Use of plant and period-specific job-exposure matrices in studies on occupational cancer. Scand J Work Env Health 1988; 14: 161-7.
• 15 Macaluso M, Vineis P, Continenza D. et al. Job-exposure matrices: experience in Italy. In: Ache-son ED. ed. Conference Report on Job-Exposure Matrices. University of Southampton (U.K); 1983: 22-30.
• 16 Macaluso M, Pisani P, Baldasseroni A. et al. Job-exposure matrices development and application to case-referent studies aimed at estimating etiologic fraction. E. S. O. Course on Occupational Cancer (unpublished).
• 17 Magnani C, Pannett B, Winter PD. et al. Application of a job-exposure matrix to national mortality statistics for lung cancer. Brit J Indust Med 1988; 45: 70-2.
• 18 Pannett B, Coggon D. Acheson A job-exposure matrix for use in population based studies in England and Wales. Brit J Indust Med 1985; 42: 777-83.
• 19 Plato N, Steineck G, Norell SE. Construction of a job-exposure matrix for epidemiological studies of urothelial cancer. In: Occupational Epidemiology, Excerpta Medica, 1988
• 20 Simonato L, Vineis P, Fletcher AC. Estimates of the proportion of lung cancer attributable to occupational exposure. Carcinogenesis 1988; 09: 1159-65.
• 21 Vineis P, Magnani C. Occupation and bladder cancer in males: a case-control study. Int J Cancer 1985; 35: 599-606.
• 22 Nomenclatures d’Activités et de Produits. Paris: Ministére de l’Economie, des Finances et de la Privatisation, 1988; N° 1402-1.
• 23 BIT: Classification Internationale Type des Professions (Revised ed). Geneva, 1968
• 24 ANPE: Répertoire Opérationnel des Métiers et des Emplois. Paris 1989
• 25 Mouaddib N. Gestion des Informations Nuancées: line Proposition de Modéle et de Méthode pour I’Identification Nuancée d’un Phénoméne (Thesis). Nancy I Informatique. 1989
• 26 Reed JV, Harcourt AK. The Essentials of Occupational Diseases. Baltimore Md; Charles C Thomas: 1941
• 27 Hoar SK, Morrison AS, Cole P. et al. An occupation and exposure linkage system for the study of occupational carcinogenesis. J Occup Med 1980; 22: 722-6.