National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health General Industry Occupational Exposure Databases: Their Structure, Capabilities, and Limitations

Abstract

The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 resulted in increased concern for the safety and health of workers in the United States. Early in 1971, a Hazard and Disease Task Force, formed by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, identified a need for more detailed information on the distribution of potential exposures of employees in industries regulated in the Occupational Safety and Health Act to chemical and physical hazards. To address this need, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducted two major national surveys as part of its hazard surveillance program. The first, conducted in 1972–1974, was called the National Occupational Hazard Survey. The second, conducted in 1981–1983, was called the National Occupational Exposure Survey. Each survey employed a stratified probability sample, and collected observational data on potential direct workplace exposures and also exposure to tradenamed products. Completed nearly a decade apart, the databases developed from these two surveys permit the identification of potential exposures by industry and occupational group. The database developed from the National Occupational Exposure Survey has the added advantage of providing gender information. These databases may be manipulated to derive exposure profiles for any of the observed agents by industry, occupational group, facility or exposure condition, or engineering control. Their usefulness as research and surveillance tools is expanded by linkage to a variety of external databases. The limitations of the databases include their lack of quantitative exposure data, the progressing age of the data, and the somewhat limited industry coverage. Greife, A.; Young, R.; Carroll, M.; Sieber, W.K.; Pedersen, D.; Sundun, D.; Seta, J.: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health General Industry Occupational Exposure Databases: Their Structure, Capabilities, and Limitations. Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg. 10(4):264–269; 1995.