Protocol - Exposure at Work and in Daily Life

Description

The respondent is asked to complete a table of questions about exposures at work or during daily life. If the respondent answers "yes" to any of the exposures the number of years exposed to the substance is also requested.

Specific Instructions

The PhenX Working Group recommends that examples be provided for each substance in the protocol table. Here are some examples:

Exposure to:

Asbestos (e.g., a fibrous mineral commonly used as insulation on older furnaces, boiler pipes, sprayed on fire proofing insulation. Newer applications use glass or slag wool.)

Chemicals/Acids/Solvents (e.g., spot removers, paint thinners, surface treatments)

Coal or Stone Dusts (e.g., dust from grinding, polishing, drilling, cutting stone)

Coal Tar/Pitch/Asphalt (e.g., repair and install commercial flat roofs and road work)

Diesel Engine Exhaust (e.g., jobs working near trucks and buses; homes near truck traffic; commuting with heavy truck traffic)

Dyes (e.g., work with aniline fabric dyes, hairdressers, some artists)

Formaldehyde (e.g., work with permanent press fabrics; some lab work)

Gasoline Exhaust (e.g., toll takers, driving jobs, crossing guards, residence near heavily traveled roads)

Pesticides/Herbicides (e.g., applicator jobs, florist, farm or ranch worker)

Textile Fibers/Dusts (e.g., manufacturing textiles, clothing, other products, seamstress)

Wood Dust (e.g., carpenter, cabinet maker, construction with wood)

X-rays/Radioactive Materials (e.g., radiology worker, chemotherapy, some hospital pharmacy, some researchers)

Availability

Available

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Protocol

In your work or daily life, are (were) you regularly exposed to any of the following? If "yes," indicate the number of years exposed.

Exposure to:	Check one		Number of years
Exposure to:	Yes	No	Number of years
Asbestos
Chemicals/Acids/Solvents
Coal or Stone Dusts
Coal Tar/Pitch/Asphalt
Diesel Engine Exhaust
Dyes
Formaldehyde
Gasoline Exhaust
Pesticides/Herbicides
Textile Fibers/Dusts
Wood Dust
X-rays/Radioactive Materials

Personnel and Training Required

This question may be self-administered (as in the source protocol) or administered by an interviewer with a paper-and-pencil or computer-assisted interview.

The interviewer must be trained to conduct personal interviews with individuals from the general population. The interviewer must be trained and found to be competent (i.e., tested by an expert) at the completion of personal interviews.* The interviewer should be trained to prompt respondents further if a "don’t know" response is provided.

* There are multiple modes to administer this question (e.g., paper-and-pencil and computer-assisted interviews).

Equipment Needs

Either a paper-and-pencil or computer-assisted instrument may be used. If a computer-assisted instrument is used, computer software may be necessary to develop the instrument. The interviewer will require a laptop computer or handheld computer to administer a computer-assisted questionnaire.

Requirements

Requirement Category	Required
Major equipment	No
Specialized training	No
Specialized requirements for biospecimen collection	No
Average time of greater than 15 minutes in an unaffected individual	No

Mode of Administration

Self-administered questionnaire

Lifestage

Adult

Participants

Adult 18 +

Selection Rationale

This protocol was vetted against other protocols and preferred because it includes a broad range of exposures and captures length of time of the exposure. This is a very good screening type question.

Language

Chinese, English, Other languages available at source

Standards

Standard	Name	ID	Source
Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)	Environ exp work daily life proto	62520-2	LOINC
caDSR Form	PhenX PX060401 - Exposure At Work And In Daily Life	5868591	caDSR Form

Derived Variables

None

Process and Review

The Expert Review Panel #2 (ERP 2) reviewed the measures in the Demographics, Environmental Exposures, and Social Environments domains.

Guidance from ERP 2 includes:

• No significant changes to measure

Back-compatible: no changes to Data Dictionary

Previous version in Toolkit archive (link)

Protocol Name from Source

American Cancer Society (ACS), Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II), Mens Baseline Questionnaire, 1982

Source

American Cancer Society. Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II), 1982. Mens Baseline Questionnaire. Question number 6.

General References

None

Protocol ID

60401

Variables

Export Variables

Variable Name	Variable ID	Variable Description	dbGaP Mapping
PX060401_Exposure_Asbestos
	PX060401010100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Asbestos? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Asbestos_Years
	PX060401010200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Asbestos? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Coal_Dust
	PX060401030100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Coal or Stone Dusts? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Coal_Dust_Period
	PX060401030200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Coal or Stone Dusts? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Coal_Tar
	PX060401040100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Coal Tar/Pitch/Asphalt? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Coal_Tar_Period
	PX060401040200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Coal Tar/Pitch/Asphalt? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Diesel_Engine_Exhaust
	PX060401050100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Diesel Engine Exhaust? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Diesel_Engine_Exhaust_Period
	PX060401050200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Diesel Engine Exhaust? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Dye
	PX060401060100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Dyes? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Dye_Period
	PX060401060200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Dyes? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Formaldehyde
	PX060401070100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Formaldehyde? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Formaldehyde_Period
	PX060401070200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Formaldehyde? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Gasoline_Exhaust
	PX060401080100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Gasoline Exhaust? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Gasoline_Exhaust_Period
	PX060401080200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Gasoline Exhaust? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Pesticides_Herbicides
	PX060401090100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Pesticides/Herbicides? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Pesticides_Herbicides_Period
	PX060401090200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Pesticides/Herbicides? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Radioactive_Materials
	PX060401120100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to X-rays/Radioactive Materials? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Radioactive_Materials_Period
	PX060401120200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to X-rays/Radioactive Materials? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Solvent
	PX060401020100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Chemicals/Acids/Solvents? show less	Variable Mapping
PX060401_Exposure_Solvent_Period
	PX060401020200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Chemicals/Acids/Solvents? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Textile_Fiber_Dust
	PX060401100100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Textile Fibers/Dusts? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Textile_Fiber_Dust_Period
	PX060401100200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Textile Fibers/Dusts? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Wood_Dust
	PX060401110100	In your work or daily life, are (were) you more regularly exposed to Wood Dust? show less	N/A
PX060401_Exposure_Wood_Dust_Period
	PX060401110200	How many years are (were) you regularly more exposed to Wood Dust? show less	N/A

Environmental Exposures

Measure Name

Exposure at Work and in Daily Life

Release Date

October 30, 2009

Definition

A series of questions about being exposed to environmental substances at work or during daily activities

Purpose

Some people may be exposed to known environmental contaminants during their daily activities or at work. These hazardous substances can cause a broad range of health ailments such as cancer, or cardiac, pulmonary, nervous, and reproductive system problems. By identifying these exposures and the length of time of the exposure, researchers can conduct a better assessment of the environmental causes of illness.

Keywords

Environmental Exposures, American Cancer Society, ACS work exposures, asbestos, chemicals, acids, solvents, diesel engine exhaust, gasoline engine exhaust, dust, dyes, formaldehyde, pesticides, herbicides, fibers, X-rays, radioactive material, occupational exposures and policies

Measure Protocols

Protocol ID	Protocol Name
60401	Exposure at Work and in Daily Life

Publications

Wang, Z. N., et al. (2024) Environmental and occupational exposures and prognosis in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer in the Be-Well Study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2024 June; 193(6): 863-873. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwad236

Ives, C., et al. (2022) Linking Complex disease and exposure data-insights from an environmental and occupational health study. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. 2022 March; doi: 10.1038/s41370-022-00428-7

McCarty, C.A., Berg, R., Rottscheit, C.M., Waudby, C.J., Kitchner, T., Brilliant, M., Ritchie, M.D. (2014) Validation of PhenX measures in the personalized medicine research project for use in gene/environment studies. BMC Med Genomics. 2014 January; 7: 3. doi: 10.1186/1755-8794-7-3

Mapping for PX060401_Exposure_Solvent

dbGAP Study	dbGAP Variable	dbGAP Variable Description
Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene)	phv00159775	Exposed to gas smoke chemicals other fumes at work?
Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene)	phv00159780	Are you currently exposed to gas smoke chemicals fumes?