Question

It has been suggested that occupational exposure to benzene in the petroleum industry increases the risk of developing leukemia. The levels of benzene to which workers in this industry have been exposed were high from 1940 to 1970, but since 1970 have been significantly reduced. What kind of study design, using petroleum workers, would provide the most useful information on whether benzene affects incidence rates of leukemia in this industry? (You may assume that records of individual worker assignments to jobs involving benzene exposure have been maintained by the industry.)

Answer 1

It is seen that occupational exposure to benzene in the petroleum industry increases the risk of getting leukemia in the workers.
In this case the Cohort study design, is very useful which is based on the incidences of such problems in the large population of petroleum workers, this cohort study provides the useful information to depict the effects of benzene and such associated incidence rates of getting leukemia. The existing public health regulations suggests that minimization of direct occupationally associated exposure of benzene can reduce such cases. Proper dressing and other safety measures should be implacable in these areas.

Along with it the rotational duty of workers should be managed in high exposure area. Hence it is advisable to conduct the cohort study by the industry. More specifically Richmond refinery cohort study is emerged as more powerful tool in study of such occupational hazards on large population, which measures the all the concerning factors about the prevalence of the disease and suggest the best possible solutions in this case.

Thus by the use of the cohort study design on petroleum industry workers it is able to provide the most useful information regarding the effect of benzene associated risks of leukemia as a major occupational hazards.