Documents Rudén, Christina 3 results

"Occupational exposure limits (OELs) are used as an important regulatory instrument to protect workers' health from adverse effects of chemical exposures. The OELs mirror the outcome of the risk assessment and risk management performed by the standard setting actor. In this study we compared the OELs established by 18 different organisations or national regulatory agencies. The OELs were compared with respect to: (1) what chemicals have been selected and (2) the average level of exposure limits for all chemicals. Our database contains OELs for a total of 1341 substances; of these 25 substances have OELs from all 18 organisations while more than one-third of the substances are only regulated by one organisation. The average level of the exposure limits has declined during the past 10 years for 6 of the 8 organisations in our study for which historical data were available; it has increased for Poland and remained nearly unchanged for Sweden. The average level of OELs differs substantially between organisations; the US OSHA exposure limits are (on average) nearly 40 % higher than those of Poland. The scientific or policy-related motivations for these differences remain to be analysed."

"Background: The main aims of the European chemicals legislation, REACH, are to generate more knowledge about the hazardous properties of industrial chemicals and to improve chemicals risk management.
Objectives: In this paper we analyse how much data will in fact be generated within REACH.
Conclusions: It is concluded that the data requirements for many endpoints have still not been determined but depend on prioritization criteria and waiving practices that will be decided in the years to come. We propose six important steps towards an improved REACH: The implementation decisions should ensure that sufficient data is obtained to make a first hazard assessments of as many substances and endpoints as possible; An effective process should be created for identifying Substances of Very High Concern and for making the appropriate risk management decisions for these substances; There is a need to develop tests and other approaches so that the information requirements can be satisfied taking into account resource limitations and the aim to reduce animal testing; Similar data requirements as those currently required for substances produced or imported in 10 tonnes or more/year should be introduced also for substances produced or imported in over 1 tonne/year; The control of substances incorporated in articles needs to be addressed; Lack of data should be systematically reported and included as a basis for risk management. "