Description of CAREX

Why a new exposure information system?

• The lack of information on the extent and industrial distribution of occupational exposure to carcinogens in most countries makes quantitative risk assessment and hazard surveillance difficult.
• The CAREX (CARcinogen EXposure) database, constructed with support from the Europe Against Cancer Program of the European Union, provides selected exposure data and documented estimates of the number of exposed workers by country, carcinogen, and industry.

 What does CAREX include?

• CAREX is an MS Access database, which contains estimates of the numbers of workers occupationally exposed to carcinogens by industry in 15 previous countries of the European Union (exposure data from 1990-93) and four of the ten countries that joined the EU in 2004 (exposure data from 1997).
• CAREX contains also information on industrial distribution of the employed, summarised exposure data, numbers of exposed by occupation, definitions of carcinogenic exposure, descriptions of the estimation procedures and bibliographic references.

Which carcinogens and industries does CAREX cover?

• CAREX includes data on 139 carcinogens evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC):
  • all agents in Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans)
  • all agents in Group 2A (probably carcinogenic to humans)
  • selected agents in Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans) eg, inorganic lead, glasswool, styrene, methylene chloride, cobalt, pentachlorophenol, carbon tetrachloride
• The numbers of the exposed are displayed for 55 industrial classes of the United Nations system (ISIC Revision 2). For some 'exposure circumstances' and rare agents only one estimate/agent/country is presented.

How were the estimates generated?

• First phase: Estimates were generated automatically by the CAREX system on the basis of national workforce data and exposure prevalence estimates from two reference countries (the United States and Finland) which had the most comprehensive data available on carcinogen exposures. The most valid value of prevalence (usually the mean of the US and Finnish values) was used as the default value.
• Second Phase: A network of national experts assesses during summer 1997 these estimates in view of their similarity/dissimilarity to the perceived exposure patterns in their own countries. The CAREX system permits these experts to select appropriate 'first-phase' estimates or to generate and document modifications of these estimates.

Please address comments and questions about CAREX to Timo Kauppinen.

Please address technical comments and questions about CAREX Web pages to Simo Virtanen.