QUESTION 9

At Love Canal, as with other toxic exposure situations, plans for long-term health follow-up of exposed populations have been considered. Discuss the epidemiologic pros and cons of such an undertaking in the Love Canal setting and describe what you think would be a reasonable approach. Consider:

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Answers:

Definition of Canal exposure: Objective criteria for exposure are needed, blood levels of dioxin could be used or more refined geographic modelling.

Selection of health conditions to be monitored: Whatever conditions are decided upon, case definitions, diagnostic criteria and verification steps must be undertaken

Competing risk factors: Tobacco, alcohol, diet, SES, occupation, medications, family history

Sample size: Power calculation should be performed.

Administrative arrangements

Cost

Ethics

A reasonable study approach might be to identify the population, establish a registry, try to assess potential for exposure to canal wastes and monitor health outcomes periodically.

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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za. Last updated Jan 2007.
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