Individuals from the facility were assigned, based on jobs worked, the number of months exposed to three different chemical forms: nonsoluble beryllium compounds (beryllium metal and oxide), soluble beryllium compounds (beryllium fluoride and hydroxide), and mixed chemical forms.
Instead, exposure was estimated based on job titles, work history, or job exposure matrices, possibly resulting in exposure misclassification.
The 133 different identified occupational titles were clustered into 13 occupations based on job analysis at the work places.
Employees were assigned to a work area based on job longest held.
Previous studies on the same population have indicated that semen quality was decreased among the most highly exposed men based on job tasks and for the men working for several years with exposure to pesticides [ 16].
Signal maintainers (n = 3,536 based on job at entry; 259 lung cancer deaths) who worked on the track were considered separately from ticket agents, station agents, and clerks, who worked in offices (n = 10,411 based on job at entry; 704 lung cancer deaths), thus defining a non-office-based, blue-collar control group.
Assuming a 5-year exposure lag before death, lung cancer mortality associated with any exposure after 1959 was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.30 1.51), the same result obtained based on work in an exposed job based on job at entry.
Records for another company were not available before 1972, and work history before that date was based on job and terminal in 1972.
The wording replaces the notion of "equal work", which created a loophole that allowed pay discrimination based on job titles.
Based on job strain prevalence estimates of 18.6% in males and 25.5% in females and an odds ratio of 1.82 for job strain and depression [ 12], this method yielded estimates of job strain-attributable risk for depression in an Australian working population sample as 13% of prevalent depression among working males and 17% among working women [ 20].
