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From 1981 to 1983, NIOSH conducted the National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES) that collected data on potential occupational exposures to chemical, physical, and biological agents. The survey involved on-site visits to 4,490 establishments in 522 industry types [OMB 1972] employing approximately 1,800,000 workers in 377 occupational categories [Census 1980]. Nearly 13,000 different potential exposure agents and over 100,000 unique tradename products were observed during these on-site visits.

Field guidelines, sampling methodology, and an analysis of management interview responses have been published [NIOSH 1988, 1989a, 1989b]. However, the bulk of the data remains unpublished. The NOES database has not been updated since July 1, 1990.

Over the years, NOES data have been quoted in numerous NIOSH documents, journal articles, and major databases such as the Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) and the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB). Now NIOSH is making available a subset of the NOES database in these reports:

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For More Information header image

For more information about the NOES, please call 1-800-35-NIOSH, e-mail to RYoung@cdc.gov, or submit a feedback form.

Beyond NOES header image

The NIOSH Surveillance Strategic Plan calls for the conduct of a comprehensive, nationally representative hazard survey. To this end, NIOSH is planning to conduct the National Exposures at Work Survey (NEWS) in a nationally representative sample of workplaces across all industries, starting with the Health Services industry. The purpose of the survey will be to collect data about exposures to occupational hazards and associated occupational groups, use of exposure controls, and management and employee health and safety practices. The data collected in the NEWS will be available elsewhere on the NIOSH website in the future.

References header image

Census [1980]. Bureau of the Census alphabetical index to industries and occupations, 1980. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

NIOSH [1988]. National occupational exposure survey field guidelines. Vol. I. Seta JA, Sundin DS, Pedersen DH, eds. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 88-106.

NIOSH [1989a]. National occupational exposure survey analysis of management interview responses. Vol. III. Pedersen DH, Sieber WK, eds. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 89-103.

NIOSH [1989b]. National occupational exposure survey sampling methodology. Vol. II. Sieber WK, ed. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 89-102.

OMB [1972]. Standard industrial classification manual 1972. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Statistical Policy Division.

Partial List of Publications Involving NOES Data header image

Boden LI, Cabral H [1995]. Company characteristics and workplace medical testing. American Journal of Public Health 85(8):1070-1075.

Behrens VJ, Brackbill RM [1993]. Worker awareness of exposure: industries and occupations with low awareness. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 23(5):695-701.

Davis RR, Sieber WK [1998]. Trends in hearing protector usage in American manufacturing from 1972 to 1989. American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 59:715-722.

de la Hoz R, Young R, and Pedersen D. Exposure to potential occupational asthmogens: Data from the National Occupational Exposure Survey. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 31:195-201.

Frazier T [1983]. NIOSH occupational health and hazard surveillance systems. Journal of Toxicology - Clinical Toxicology 21:201-209.

Froines J, Wegman D, Eisen E [1989]. VI. Hazard surveillance in occupational disease. American Journal of Public Health 79(Suppl):26-31.

Greife A, Halperin W, Groce D, O'Brien D, Pedersen D, Myers JR, and Jenkins L [1995]. Hazard surveillance: Its role in primary prevention of occupational disease and injury. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 10(9):737-742.

Greife A, Young R, Carroll M, Sieber WK, Pedersen D, Sundin D, Seta J [1995]. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health general industry occupational exposure databases: Their structure, capabilities, and limitations. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 10(4):264-269.

Kauppinen T, Toikkanen J, Pedersen D, Young R, Ahrens W, Boffetta P, Hansen J, Kromhout H, Blasco JM, Mirabelli D, de la Orden-Rivera V, Pannett B, Plato N, Savela A, Vincent R, Kogevinas M [2000]. Occupational exposure to carcinogens in the European Union. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 57:10-18.

Morata TC, Dunn DE, Sieber WK [1994]. Occupational exposure to noise and ototoxic organic solvents. Archives of Environmental Health 49(5):359-364.

Murthy LI [1989]. Computer readable data from NIOSH. Seminars in Dermatology 8(2):70-71.

Murthy LI [1994]. Introduction. In: LaDou J, ed. Occupational health and safety, 2nd ed. Itasca, IL: National Safety Council, pp. 3-16.

Murthy LI [2000]. Growth of occupational health. In: Balge MZ, Krieger GR, eds. Occupational health and safety, 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: National Safety Council, pp. 3-24.

Pedersen DH [2000]. Industrial responses to constrained OSHA regulation. American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 61(3):381-387.

Pedersen DH, Sieber WK [1989]. Some trends in worker access to health care in the United States (1974-1983). American Journal of Indusrial Medicine 15:151-165.

Pedersen DH, Young RO, and Rose VE [2001]. Populations at risk. In: Bingham E, Cohrssen B, Powell C, eds. Patty’s toxicology, 5th ed, Vol. VIII. New York, NY: John Wiley, Inc., pp. 699-707.

Robinson CF, Petersen M, Sieber WK, Palu S, Halperin WE [1996]. Mortalitiy of carpenters' union members employed in the U.S. construction of wood products industries, 1987-1990. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 30:674-694.

Ruder A, Fine L, Sundin D [1990]. National estimates of occupational exposure to animal bladder tumorigens. Journal of Occupational Medicine 32(9):797-805 (1990).

Seligman PJ, Sieber WK, Pedersen DH, Sundin DS, and Frazier TM [1988]. Compliance with OSHA record-keeping requirements. American Journal of Public Health 78(8):1218-1219.

Seta JA, Sundin DS [1985]. Trends of a decade - A perspective on occupational hazard surveillance, 1970-1983. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 34(2):15-24.

Seta JA, Sundin DS [1989]. Semiconductor industry - A hazard surveillance perspective. In: Hazard assessment and control technology in semiconductor manufacturing. Chelsea, Michigan: Lewis Publishers, pp. 37-46.

Seta JA, Young RO, Pedersen DH, Bernstein IL, Bernstein DI [1999]. The United States National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES) data base. In: Bernstein IL, Chan-Yeung M, Malo JL, Bernstein DI, eds. Asthma in the workplace, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, Inc., pp. 721-728.

Sieber WK, Seta JA, Young RO [1994]. A job exposure matrix for identification of potential exposures in occupational settings. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Epidemiology in Occupational Health, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 23-25, 1992. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 94-112, pp. 351-356.

Sundin DS, Frazier TM [1989]. VII. Hazard surveillance at NIOSH. American Journal of Public Health 79(Suppl):32-37.

Sundin DS, Pedersen DH, and Frazier TM [1986]. Occupational hazard and health surveillance. American Journal of Public Health. 76(9):1083-1084.

Valiante DJ, Richards TB, Kinsley KB [1992]. Silicosis surveillance in New Jersey: Targeting workplaces using occupational disease and exposure surveillance data. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 21(4):517-526.

The 52,000+ NOES HTML files on the NIOSH website were created by Henry S. Chan, (CIH), and Rolland R Rogers, Jr., (MBA). from data provided by Randy O. Young in December 2002. The NOES logo was created by Joseph Cauley

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