The ECETOC-Targeted Risk Assessment Tool for Worker Exposure Estimation in REACH Registration Dossiers of Chemical Substances-Current Developments.

Jan Urbanus,Qiang Li,Matthias Wormuth,Paul Van De Sandt,Joost Van Rooij,Chris Money,Dook Noij,Dave Marsh,Oliver Henschel

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228443

Abstract

(1) Background: The ECETOC Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) tool is widely used for estimation of worker exposure levels in the development of dossiers for REACH registration of manufactured or imported chemical substances in Europe. A number of studies have been published since 2010 in which the exposure estimates of the tool are compared with workplace exposure measurement results and in some instances an underestimation of exposure was reported. The quality and results of these studies are being reviewed by ECETOC. (2) Methods: Original exposure measurement data from published comparison studies for which six or more data points were available for each workplace scenario and a TRA estimate had been developed to create a curated database to examine under what conditions and for which applications the tool is valid or may need adaptation. (3) Results: The published studies have been reviewed for completeness and clarity and TRA estimates have been constructed based on the available information, following a set of rules. The full review findings are expected to be available in the course of 2021. (4) Conclusions: The ECETOC TRA tool developers periodically review the validity and limitations of their tool, in line with international recommendations.

Highlights

When the European chemicals control legislation “REACH” (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) came into force in 2007 a period of just over 3 years was allowed to registrants, primarily industrial companies, to submit dossiers for a large first number of substances that were either being produced in volumes of more than 1000 tonnes per year or were classified for severe health or environmental effects [1].Int
While all those available data sets were inserted into the database, only those data were used for further analysis if they fulfill the following requirements: (1) A minimum of six measurements in order to calculate the 75th percentile and the associated confidence interval for comparison with the exposure estimate generated by the tool; (2) clear description of the chemical substance(s) and work activity being monitored so that a Process Categories (PROCs) can be assigned; (3) sufficient contextual information to define the tool inputs to generate a Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) estimate
The curated database is currently being finalized with full transparency as to the original measurement data, modeling approach followed by the researchers and any modifications deemed necessary by the ECETOC TF

Summary

Introduction

When the European chemicals control legislation “REACH” (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) came into force in 2007 a period of just over 3 years was allowed to registrants, primarily industrial companies, to submit dossiers for a large first number of substances that were either being produced in volumes of more than 1000 tonnes per year or were classified for severe health or environmental effects [1]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8443; doi:10.3390/ijerph17228443 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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