Epidemiologic Design for Field Studies Occupational Neurotoxicity

Assessing the neurotoxic effects of occupational exposures has become increasingly sophisticated in the past decade with the application of neurophysiological and neurobehavioral research techniques to occupational disease problems. With a good epidemiologie study design and the careful application of these techniques, occupational field studies of neurotoxic effects are possible. Three examples from recent health hazard evaluations of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) illustrate some of the problems in performing these studies and methods to overcome these problems.