Assignment:
Industrial Epidemiology & Toxicology
Assessment
INTRODUCTION
Safe Work Australia has decided hypothetically for the purpose of this assessment to review its workplace exposure standard (WES) for hard metals containing Cobalt. Safe Work Australia has written to all stakeholders (government, employers, workers and professional bodies) inviting them to make submissions on the current exposure standard (0.05 mg/m3 TWA) and whether a review of these exposure standards is required or not in light of the most recent Threshold Limit Value (TLV) recommended by ACGIH (0.02 mg/m3 TWA). Safe Work Australia has however not provided any endpoint criteria as the basis for this review. The responses from stakeholders resulted in the following:
- Government - the exposure standard should be between 0.02 and 0.05 mg/m3
- Employers - the current exposure standard should remain the same i.e. 0.05 mg/m3
- Workers - the current exposure standard is too high and needs to be lowered to 0.02 mg/m3
- Professional bodies - the current exposure standard may be acceptable depending on the acute or chronic effects of cobalt.
As there is little chance of agreement between the four stakeholders Safe Work Australia have commissioned a consulting group (i.e. YOU) to review all the epidemiological & toxicological data and put forth a recommendation for an exposure standard for Cobalt.
The consulting group (i.e. YOU) are told that they should collect the data first and from that a decision on an appropriate assessment end point will be made by the Chairman of Safe Work Australia. The consulting group (i.e. YOU) then have the task of proposing a standard that meets the endpoint criteria and is also supported by available information.
As the endorsement process requires agreement between the states the consulting group is asked to prepare an evidence-based report outlining all the data they uncover and their reasons for including and excluding any data in the ultimate determination of the exposure standard.
STUDENT ACTIONS
You will be collecting and evaluating both epidemiological & toxicological data for the above mentioned workplace contaminant.
As part of the data collection and critical analysis you need to think about endpoints i.e. health effects and determine what are the possible "appropriate assessment end points (health effects)" supported by the data.
You will also review workplace exposure standards available in various countries and complete the task of proposing a standard that meets the endpoint criteria and supported by available information.
Step by step guidance:
- Evidence based evaluation of available information and databases
- Search strategy, inclusion & exclusion criteria, and literature review of epidemiology & toxicology studies.
- Collate information and data from both epidemiological and toxicological literature reviews.
- Make inferences and draw conclusions based on collated information.
- Prepare your PowerPoint Presentation & Individual written report
Part 1: PowerPoint Presentation
You will then present your findings using a PowerPoint presentation (Maximum 15 slides, Maximum allotted time for presentation - 15 minutes, Voice-Over/ Narrated PowerPoint for Remote Delivery). Presentations will be submitted earlier than the reports to recommend what are the key points and what should be the appropriate endpoint based on the available data.
Following submissions of PowerPoint Presentations, the required endpoint for the determination of an exposure standard will be declared by the Chairman of Safe Work Australia (YOUR LECTURER).
Part 2: Individual Written Report
Individual reports will be then prepared by each student to submit their proposal for a workplace exposure standard to take account of the assigned endpoint and the available data. Each report must be an independent assessment of the available data. The report must be no longer than 2000 words, excluding title page, references and appendices. Reasons must be provided for including any data that supports the proposed exposure standard or any data that has been excluded because it doesn't support the proposed exposure standard.