Document O1Qw3KEzzgVqGDj3qbkv0VeQK
AR226-1910
Ongoing PFOA Worker Study
Ammonium Perfluorooctonoate: Cross-Sectional Surveillance of Clinical Measures of General Health Status Related to a Serum Biomarker of Exposure and Retrospective Cohort Analyses in a Polymer Production Plant
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What...
An occupational health study that uses two approaches--
- Cross-sectional survey of health-related endpoints and a serum biomarker of exposure (PFOA)
- Retrospective cohort mortality analyses of all workers at the plant from 1948-2002.
Reference populations include U.S. DuPont; U.S. general; Wood Cty, WV; state of WV; and Washington Cty, Ohio
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Who...
... are the subjects?
- 1025 volunteer current active workers (males and females) at the DuPont Washington Works site
. a r e the investigators?
- DuPont Epidemiology Program staff
- Haskell Laboratory toxicologists and statisticians, analytical chemists, information services staff
- Professional Health Services (occupational clinical services provider)
.provides oversight and review?
- Epidemiology Review Board
Dr. David Wegman, Chairman
- West Virginia Univ. Institutional Review Board
Dr. Robert Craig, Chairman
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Why?
Primary objectives :
- Develop statistical models that describe the relationship of serum PFOA to health outcome variables suggested by previous animal and worker studies, taking into account potential confounders and effect modifiers.
- Conduct retrospective cohort mortality analyses using appropriate stratification based on job/task descriptions and estimated past exposures to PFOA.
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Why?
Secondary objectives:
- Develop a statistical model that describes the variability in the biomarker of exposure (serum PFOA) in terms of the traditional occupational epidemiological descriptors, e.g., job, task, duration of work in PFOA areas, etc. in order to stratify historical cohorts by potential exposure to PFOA for mortality analyses.
- Identify appropriate markers of effect (if any) to allow proper follow-up through continued improved surveillance.
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Where...
...is the plant?
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Where...
.a re the laboratories doing the analyses?
- Haskell Laboratory, Newark, DE - Professional Health Services, Havertown,
PA - Exygen Laboratories, State College, PA - Quest Diagnostics, PA
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When?
Epidemiology Study Timeline
Design, identification of contractors, approvals from review boards Operations and logistics planning, employee communications Clinical examinations, blood draw
2004
A MJ J A S pa uuue r y nl gp
O N DJ c oea t vcn
Electronic data capture/transfer/QA
Initiate statistical analyses, draft methods, outline results section, meet with ERB
Draft Final Report
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Participation
1,863 letters of invitation sent to all current active DuPont employees at the site (no contractors)
1,147 volunteer forms returned 1,025 workers kept clinical exam appointments
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Proportion of Work Areas Volunteering
Volunteers
E
Total eligible
Teflon
Non-Teflon
Work Areas
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Distribution of Males, Females among Active Employees
M F
24 29 34 39 44 49 54 59 64 69
5-Year Age Groups
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Distribution of 5_year Hire Groups
600 500
n0) 400
E 300
200 100
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<WBI> Distribution of Serum PFOA Levels By Current Work Assignment
Serum PFOA (ppm)
Work Assignment
Teflon
Number in Group
259
Median 0.494
Min Max 0.0174 9.55
Research/Technical
160
0.176
0.0081 2.07
Never assigned to Teflon
342
Assigned to Teflon at some point
264
Total Participants 1025
0.114 0.195
0.0046 0.963 0.0086 2.59
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