O-290 Occupational Noise JEM development within European job-exposure matrix (EuroJEM), EU exposome project exposome project for health and occupational research (EPHOR)

Introduction

Occupational noise exposure has, in previous studies, been associated with public health diseases. To establish an association, however, high-quality quantitative exposure assessment is needed. The aim of this study was to develop a quantitative European job-exposure matrix (JEM) for occupational noise exposure to be used in exposure-response analyses in epidemiological studies.

Materials and Methods

A literature search of available Job Exposure Matrices (JEMs) across Europe, resulted in the conclusion that only the Swedish SweJEM and the Danish DOC*X were eligible for inclusion in a quantitative JEM. Both JEMs were based on measurements. An existing dataset of 1344 measurements in ISCO-88(COM) was available in the Danish team. The 4107 Swedish measurements were first entered manually into a database and were then translated from NYK83 to ISCO-88(COM). All measurements were then merged into a joint database. Separate expert judgements of occupational noise exposure are also available for both JEMs. These were expressed in five categories: <70, 70–74, 75–79, 80–84, ≥85 dBA in Sweden and three categories: <80, 80–84, ≥85dBA in Denmark. The expert judgements were harmonized, with decisions made based on previous knowledge of the occupational settings and measurements of noise exposure for the occupation in question. The database with measurements and the database with expert assessments were merged, to set an occupational noise level for occupations where measurements were lacking. An expert assessment of the exposed occupations in the joint JEM concluded that the noise levels should be comparable across Europe.

Results and Conclusions

A quantitative noise JEM in LAeq,8h dBA for each of the 372 jobs described by ISCO-88(COM) was constructed. This JEM can be used to assess noise exposure in European epidemiological studies. This JEM will be part of EuroJEM which is being developed for harmonized assessment of several exposures in the EU EPHOR project.