• National Exposure Registry
• Benzene
• Dioxin
• Journal Articles
• Trichloroethylene(TCE)
• Trichloroethane(TCA)
• Registry Data

SECTION 1

INTRODUCTION

This is a report on the baseline activities and findings from the analyses of data collected from participants in the Trichloroethylene (TCE) Subregistry. The TCE Subregistry is part of the National Exposure Registry, which was created and is being maintained by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

In 1988, the policies and procedures proposed for the National Exposure Registry were reviewed extensively by several committees composed of independent scientists, state representatives, representatives of other federal agencies, and other interested persons. The revised polices and procedures were published in the National Exposure Registry Policies and Procedures Manual (1). The TCE Subregistry was the first subregistry to be established as part of the National Exposure Registry program. There are currently three chemical subregistries.

In keeping with Registry goals (1), this report represents the first of a set of ongoing reports and publications that will summarize the latest TCE Subregistry findings and suggest specific hypotheses for future research. The research will focus on these and other residential populations who have experienced similar exposures to TCE in drinking water. This report highlights some health outcomes and predictive variables that should be considered for analysis in future epidemiologic or health studies.

The Policies and Procedures Manual (1) describes in detail all policies, procedures, and operational details pertinent to establishing the TCE and other subregistries of the National Exposure Registry. Specific topics from the policies and procedures document are reiterated in this report, where necessary, for clarity.

Section 2 of the report provides a discussion of why TCE was selected as a primary contaminant for a subregistry and how individual sites were selected. Section 3 presents a detailed discussion of each site within the TCE Subregistry, including information on residential sampling schemes and periods of exposure.

Section 4 provides descriptive and summary information on environmental and registrant data. For example, the environmental data information includes a summary of all exposure levels and periods and an assessment of registrant tenure (or duration of residence) at site addresses during the exposure periods. To better evaluate the registrant exposure data, a discussion by site of the data collection period, participation rates, and number of registrants is included.

The report provides an overview of the characteristics and health status of registrants who took part in this baseline effort. Sections 5 and 6 include two sets of comparisons to national norms: Section 5 compares the TCE Subregistry data with national survey data files for smoking habits and demographic characteristics and reported rates of adverse health outcomes; Section 6 compares the mortality data with national rates.

Section 7 reports intrafile comparisons of registrants grouped by exposure level and length of exposure. Section 8 discusses the findings from the baseline morbidity and mortality analyses and the intrafile comparisons in light of published literature. Section 9 summarizes the findings of the report and discusses future activities.