Provides details of accidental releases

Can indicate safety procedures/protective measures

Data may be incomplete (unreported)

Exposure quantified subjectively

Episodic measurement of unusual occurrences rather than “average” workday exposure

Provides details of accidental releases

Can indicate personal hygiene and safety habits

Can obtain chronology of work experience with multiple agent exposures

Potential for recall bias

Employees may be unaware of exposure

Potential for falsification of exposure for personal gain

Potential for lost to follow-up (missing information) in retrospective studies

Identified changes in the genetic material

Indicates systemic exposure to a mutagen

Expensive, due to need for specially trained personnel and sophisticated equipment

Relationship between changes in mutation rates and reproductive outcomes is unknown

Results may be confounded by smoking and environmental factors (e.g., effect of smoking on sister chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes; radiation effects)

Individual variability in baseline rates

Most chromosomal aberrations are nonspecific

Identifies alterations in normal constituents of body fluids and changes in rate of normal biochemical processes

Does not quantify body burden

Results may be confounded by drugs, nutrition, and disease