ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the strategic implications of exposure assessment for chemical agents that produce chronic diseases. It discusses the statistical and biological issues that offer some insights into those which may be appropriate. The technological leap from stationary and hand-held samplers to personal-sampling equipment in the late 1960s made it possible for hygienists to measure shift-long exposures directly and, therefore, to recognize the importance of shift-to-shift variability. A conceptual model which organizes the functional relationships between the exposure distribution and an individual’s risk of disease. Stationarity implies that the statistical descriptors of the underlying processes which give rise to the exposure distribution do not change over the time period of interest. The strategic implication of these two scenarios is to suggest that the first step of the exposure assessment should be to classify the cohort into uniformly exposed subgroups.
