Implications Of Different Fibre Measures For Epidemiologic Studies Of Manmade Vitreous Fibres

Several researchers have proposed fibre size ranges representing hypotheses about the biological activity of fibres. Each of these indices has a biologically plausible rationale, yet they propose different fibre dimensions. Four biologically based and one standard fibre analytic method index, the NIOSH 7400 method with B rules, were evaluated in air monitoring data collected in a variety of fibreglass manufacturing settings to determine their impact on an assessment of fibre exposure for an epidemiologic study of the risk of respiratory cancer among production workers. All indices varied considerably within and among the range of fibre size distributions sampled in the factories.