Guidance

• Part D of the REACH Guidance on Information Requirements and Chemical Safety Assessments provides in-depth guidance on exposure assessment, in particular how to describe uses, how to collect information on operational conditions and risk management measures, and how to carry out exposure estimates. This includes:
• Brief general description of identified uses and how to give exposure scenarios a short title (Chapter R.12)
• Risk management measures and operational conditions for building of exposure scenarios, including guidance on how to determine the effectiveness of risk management measures and how to make use of the risk management library initially set up during the development of the current guidance (Chapter R.13).
• Occupational exposure estimation (Chapter R.14)
• Exposure estimation related to consumers (Chapter R.15)
• Exposure estimation related to the environment (Chapter R.16)
• Chapter R.17 and Chapter R.18 provide guidance on exposure estimates related to life cycle stages subsequent to identified uses (releases from articles and releases from waste life stage).

Lists

• The Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) developed an Exposure Code List was first developed in 1994, for use by AOEC members in order to help systematically identify both existing and emerging occupational and environmental health concerns (Hunting and McDonald, “Development of a Hierarchical Exposure Coding System for Clinic-Based Surveillance of Occupational Disease and Injury”, Appl. Occup. Environ. Hyg. 10(4), April, 1995). This source includes specific designation for chemicals known or suspected of causing or exacerbating asthma.

• The Nordic SPIN database has been extended with a new feature. A project group under the Nordic Chemical Group (NKG) has developed a toolbox on the SPIN web site, SPIN Exposure Toolbox. The first tool is called Use Index. The tool makes it possible to search for a general indicative exposure of human beings and environment from different chemical uses. It is based on the extensive information stored in the Nordic product registers. Since the tool uses confidential data which cannot be published on the SPIN web site, this leads to increased availability of chemical information.

Other Tools

• Stoffenmanager: The Stoffenmanager, created by the Safe and Healthy Work Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of Netherlands, is a tool for prioritizing worker health risks to dangerous substances. The Stoffenmanager was developed as a tool allowing SME’s to prioritize health risks to dangerous substances and to determine effective control measures. The tool combines hazard information of a substance or product with an inhalation and/or dermal worker exposure assessment to calculate a risk score. When risks are presumed, effects of control measures can be examined. An action plan shows an overview of the risk assessments with control measures. Stoffenmanager can also be used as a quantitative inhalation exposure tool and as a REACH Tier one quantitative inhalation exposure tool.

• EPA's database of chemical exposure studies (ExpoCast) used to estimate real-life risks to health and to identify the most effective ways to reduce these risks.

• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES). In a statistically controlled study done in 2005-2006, the CDC conducted interviews and collected blood and urine samples to provide information on the presence of numerous chemicals in human bodies. More recent monitoring results available at: http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/

• The Danish Birth Cohort is a program initiated in the Nordic Countries to determine the impact of numerous external stimuli upon the development of the children. Between 1997 and 2000, mother and child pairs were recruited into a long-term study to evaluate the impacts of early exposures upon long-term development.