Exposure Assessment Program
The Exposure Assessment program develops new strategies, tools and methods to measure exposures to a wide variety of chemical, physical, biological, and other hazards present in multiple industries. To do this work, the program intersects with the sector and cross-sector programs within the NIOSH Program Portfolio. Ten sector programs represent industrial sectors, and seven cross-sector programs are organized around safety and health outcomes. The sector programs intersect with the cross-sector programs in a matrix-like fashion, with relevant core and specialty programs playing a supporting role to understand, communicate, and manage risks to worker safety and health. Exposure Assessment is one of numerous core and specialty programs that represent core activities, mandates, special emphasis areas, and methodological approaches.
The matrix approach of the NIOSH Program Portfolio allows multiple programs to work towards accomplishing the shared research goals in the NIOSH Strategic Plan. The Exposure Assessment program contributes to specific goals seeking to understand potentially hazardous exposures or better measure substances known to be harmful. These include goals for research on:
- Better understanding pesticide exposures and chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology among agriculture and forestry workers.
- Potentially carcinogenic chemicals that are new or increasingly used in the manufacturing sector, including flame retardant chemicals, as well bisphenol A (BPA) and other plasticizers.
- Measuring known or suspected lung carcinogens in the mining sector, such as silica, elongated mineral particles, and radon.
- Direct reading instruments for potential carcinogens left on fire fighters’ gear after cleaning.
- Different workplace factors such as stress and shiftwork and how they are interrelated with cardiovascular disease causation and progression among workers in the services sector.
- Hazardous dermal exposures among agriculture and oil and gas extraction industry workers.