An Exploratory Quantitative Risk Assessment for High Molecular Weight Sensitizers: Wheat Flour

摘要

Objective: Quantitative risk assessments have been made for wheat dust and allergen exposure and wheat sensitization using classical epidemiological approaches based on simple categorizations in exposure groups. Such analyses suggest the existence of an exposure thres- hold level for wheat specific sensitization and were used as input in recently conducted risk assessments for wheat flour by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygien- ists and the Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Standards. More advanced statistical analyses were applied using generalized additive modeling and smoothed plots to evaluate the shape of the exposure response relationship in greater detail and evaluate the presence of exposure thresholds.