Abstract
A research and development effort was undertaken by the Plastics Business Operations of the General Electric Company to establish a functional computer system for industrial hygiene exposure data using a zone concept for categorizing employee groups. Two basic file structures were established. The first was the factor data file which contains specific information on the potential exposure agents (such as CAS number, agent name, molecular weight, TLV, etc.) and provides the background data necessary to develop output reports. The second was the zone description which contains basic demographic information and exposure data for the zone. The overriding emphasis in the development of this system has been to develop a system of data retrieval which provides useful and timely outputs. The use of intelligent CRT terminals with plain English lead-through and prompting provides user orientation, immediate validation, and minimizes the amount of computer experience necessary to effectively utilize this system.