Assessment and Grouping of Occupational Magnetic Field Exposure in Five Electric Utility Companies

• Published in: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment ＆ Health Environment ＆ Health, 1995-02, Vol.21 (1), p.43-50
• Main Authors: Kromhout, Hans, Loomis, Dana P, Mihlan, Gary J, Peipins, Lucy A, Kleckner, Robert C, Iriye, Richard, Savitz, David A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Air Quality; Analysis of Variance; Arithmetic mean; Biological and medical sciences; Business structures; Chemical hazards; Cohort Studies; Confidence Intervals; Data Collection - methods; Effects of various physical factors on living matter (vibrations, electric field, ultrasound, sound...); Electric fields; Electric utilities; Electricity; Electromagnetic Fields; Environmental Monitoring; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Luchtkwaliteit; Magnetic fields; Mathematical Computing; Occupational classification; Occupational Exposure - analysis; Power Plants; Random Allocation; Range errors; Standard deviation; Statistical variance; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; United States
• ISSN: 0355-3140; 1795-990X
• DOI: 10.5271/sjweh.7

Objectives Occupational exposure to 60-Hz magnetic fields was surveyed among randomly selected workers in five electric power companies. Methods The study facilitated the examination of exposure variability and provided the base for a job-exposure matrix linking health outcomes and occupational magnetic field exposures. Results Average exposures ranged from 0.11 to 1.50 μT. The differences among the five companies were small, the more urban companies showing somewhat higher averages. The day-to-day component of variance exceeded the within-and between-group components of variance. The final job-exposure matrix consisted of five groups with average exposure levels of 0.12,0.21,0.39,0.62, and 1.27 μT. Given the variance in exposure, even this optimal grouping considerably overlapped. Conclusions The job-exposure matrix used in this study efficiently incorporated the differences in exposure within occupational categories between companies and provided an objective and statistically based method for estimating cumulative magnetic field exposure.