Answer to Question 2b:
The health concerns which one would want to address must be determined on the basis of expected exposures, specific toxicities of the agents involved and concerns or observations in the community.
In this case there are a multitude of possible relevant outcomes including:
- Reproductive outcomes, ( these may be sensitive markers of contaminant effects and are of short latency)
- Childhood growth and development
- Neurobehavioral outcomes, ( a very sensitive and very non-specific outcome)
- Cancer, ( unfortunately the long latency often makes cancer difficult to study or attribute to suspected expsosures)
- Dermatologic Problems, (possibly a good indication of skin exposure)
- Chromosomal aberrations
- Immune effects
- Liver functions etc. are all of possible interest.
Questionnaires or surveys should involve outcomes which can be verified from medical record review or laboratory confirmation.
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