In the absence of an established exposure-disease sequence, the direction of the association between TCDD and DM is almost impossible to ascertain.
If a role of food liking in influencing consumption is established, exposure to a wide variety of fruits at low prices may be promising if it leads to increased sampling of these foods, thereby setting up a virtuous circle such that increased consumption increases liking (e.g., Stein et al., 2003), which in turn increases consumption (e.g., Nederkoorn et al., 2010).
However, the type of exposure associated with STP use (shown schematically for use of a generic STP in Fig. 4) is somewhat different to established exposure models.
Taking into account established exposure levels, we used different NPM-protein coronas (5, 10 and 20 μg/ml NPM) for the 3D-HLF exposures.
This is more a concern for emerging exposures (e.g. radiation) than for established exposures (e.g. SHS).
Our study also includes established exposures known to increase risk of venous thromboembolism.
Biomonitoring studies can establish exposure levels across a study population and provide a means to compare exposures across population groups by age, sex, ethnicity, or other demographic descriptors.
VLP-ELISA is an established HPV exposure marker [ 11], and we observed moderate concordance between GST-L1 and VLP-ELISA.
This study had a strong sampling design and benefited from laboratory testing to establish exposure to HBV.
Difficulties in establishing exposure levels at different work areas in the past makes an evaluation of dose-effect relationships impossible.
The spatial relationship alone does not establish exposure, but the current study was able to determine a plausible route of exposure by also taking time into account.
