Development of a quantitative North and Central European job exposure matrix for wood dust

Wood dust is an established carcinogen also linked to several non malignant respiratory disorders. A major limitation in research
on wood dust and its health effects is the lack of (historical) quantitative estimates of occupational exposure for use in general
population-based case-control or cohort studies. The present study aimed to develop a multinational quantitative Job Exposure
Matrix (JEM) for wood dust exposure using exposure data from several Northern and Central European countries. For this, an
occupational exposure database containing 12653 personal wood dust measurements collected between 1978 and 2007 in
Denmark, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK) was established. Measurement data were
adjusted for differences in inhalable dust sampling efficiency resulting from the use of different dust samplers and analysed using
linear mixed effect regression with job codes (ISCO-88) and country treated as random effects. Fixed effects were the year of
measurement, the expert assessment of exposure intensity (no, low, and high exposure) for every ISCO-88 job code from an
existing wood dust JEM and sampling duration. The results of the models suggest that wood dust exposure has declined annually by approximately 8%. Substantial differences in exposure levels between countries were observed with the highest levels
in the United Kingdom and the lowest in Denmark and Norway, albeit with similar job rankings across countries. The jobs with
the highest predicted exposure are floor layers and tile setters, wood-products machine operators, and building construction
labourers with geometric mean levels for the year 1997 between 1.7 and 1.9 mg/m3
. The predicted exposure estimates by the
model are compared with the results of wood dust measurement data reported in the literature. The model predicted estimates
for full-shift exposures were used to develop a time-dependent quantitative JEM for exposure to wood dust that can be used
to estimate exposure for participants of general population studies in Northern European countries on the health effects from
occupational exposure to wood dust

Publication Number: P/23/07

First Author: Basinas I, Kromhout H, Schlünssen V.

Other Authors: Liukkonen T, Sigsgaard T, Andersen NT, Vestergaard JM, Galea KS, Tongeren M , Wiggans R, Savary B, Eduard W, Kolstad HA, Vested A, Kromhout H, Schlünssen V.

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