Derivation of occupational exposure limits for airborne chemicals - Comparison of methods and protection levels
On 5 April 2022 the international workshop on the BAuA research project F 2437 on methods for derivation of occupational exposure limits took place. It has been conducted by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in cooperation with FoBiG (Forschungs- und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH) as an English hybrid-event. Target audience were scientists involved in toxicological risk assessment and risk management. Approximately 30 persons attended in person in the steelhall of the BAuA in Dortmund and 160 persons took part online via a web-conferencing-system. Experts from regulatory agencies, industry, NGOs, the science, Länder authorities as well as representatives of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) from Germany, numerous EU-member states as well as from non-European countries, were represented.
The derivation and setting of occupational exposure limits (OELs) is an important component of the risk assessment and risk management of chemicals in different national as well as international processes. On the EU level the harmonisation of airborne exposure limit values is a current issue, because for some substances different exposure limits for workplaces were yielded by occupational safety and health legislation on the one hand and by chemicals legislation on the other hand.
At the workshop results of the research project F2437 conducted by FoBiG were presented and discussed with the expert audience. The objective of this project was to analyse and disclose the differences between the current methods for deriving OELs and the resulting differences in protection levels. The topics presented were
- Differences between methods regarding individual steps, e.g. determination of the point of departure or use of assessment factors
- New data evaluations for extrapolation steps (time, inter- and intraspecies extrapolation)
- Analysis of protection levels by combining steps via probabilistic methods
In the following the handout including the agenda as well as the presentations are provided. A written summary of the workshop can be found under "Publications".
Background and overall objectives (PDF, 387 KB)
Claudia Drossard, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
TOPIC 3: Project overview (PDF, 1 MB)
Eva Kaiser, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
TOPIC 4: Analysis of Methods (PDF, 684 KB)
Klaus Schneider, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
TOPIC 5: Time and interspecies extrapolations (PDF, 649 KB)
Eva Kaiser, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
TOPIC 6: Intraspecies extrapolation (PDF, 393 KB)
Klaus Schneider, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
TOPIC 7: Protection levels (PDF, 824 KB)
Klaus Schneider, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
TOPIC 8: Open questions and steps towards implementation (PDF, 365 KB)
Klaus Schneider, FoBiG, Forschungs und Beratungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH
