Development of an Occupational Exposure Data Bank on the Territory of a Department of Community Health in Montreal

Abstract

A data bank covering exposures to toxic substances collected since 1976 in the territory of one of Montréal's local occupational health teams has been developed from records kept on paper files. Sixty-three fields are associated with each of the 20,000 data points recorded and correspond to the following categories of information: company and processes, occupation, sample characteristics, measurement result, time-weighted average calculations, and other nonquantitative results. A thousand unique activity/occupation couplets can be found, with the main activities in the metal and chemical sectors and occupations in mixing, moulding, assembling, and finishing jobs. Data cover 221 substances, with most results for solvents used in paints and adhesives and metals found in metal products manufacturing activities. The majority of results covered a sampling period of less than 3 hours. The data bank is regularly updated and used by hygienists and physicians for daily management of company files or for planning visits, for example, by generating activity-occupation-specific exposure profiles, helping for the a priori identification of substances, and for hazard surveillance by highlighting situations with the potential for overexposure. The detailed coding of the representativeness of exposure data and the use of elaborate occupational and industrial classifications are seen as essential assets of such a data bank. Begin, D.; Gerin, M.; Adib, G.; Fournier, C.; DeGuire, L.: Development of an Occupational Exposure Data Bank on the Territory of a Department of Community Health in Montreal. Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg. 10(4):355–360; 1995.