HISTORICAL COHORT STUDY IN THE GERMAN RUB BER INDUSTRY - OBJECTIVES, STUDY DESIGN AND DATA-COLLECTION

A historical cohort study is carried out to investigate occupational h azards in the German rubber industry since 1991. We present and discus s the study objectives and study design features such as cohort defini tion, assessment of occupational exposure and selection of the referen ce population. Cohort enumeration, assessment of vital status and caus e of death ascertainment are described. With approximately 2800 deaths throughout the observation period 1981 to 1991 it will be possible al so to study the occupational etiology of rare diseases.