Dr John Cherrie delivers a lecture on Understanding Exposure
On the 4th October, John Cherrie spoke at the British Occupational Hygiene Autumn Scientific meeting in Manchester. His talk was about the role of chemical exposure monitoring in providing important intelligence about likely future changes in the incidence of work-related ill-health. John presented some of the results from IOM’s recently completed study on time trends in chemical exposure that found generally reducing levels of inhalation exposure over time (http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr460.htm). He argued that information of this type would not be available but for the efforts of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and others to systematically collate the results of measurements surveys during the last twenty years. However, in recent years the number of measurements being made in Britain has reduced dramatically. There is a need for HSE and others to continue to collect and store the results of exposure measurements to give clear intelligence about the effectiveness of occupational hygiene practice in reducing the burden of ill-health. John argued that HSE should provide leadership in this respect for the whole occupational hygiene community.
More information about this meeting is available from the BOHS website http://www.bohs.org/eventDetails.aspx?event=61