Is the New EN689 a better standard to test compliance with occupational exposure limits in the workplace?
D'Errico, Antonio ; Houba, Remko ; Kromhout, Hans
Annals of Work Exposures and Health
2022
66
3
412–415
limitation of exposure ; compliance with exposure limits ; measurement system ; test ; standard
Exposure limits
https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxab111
English
Bibliogr.
"Objective
To evaluate the performance of three measurement strategies to test compliance with occupational exposure limits of similarly exposed groups (SEGs): the old and new versions of EN689, and the BOHS-NVvA guidance on measuring compliance.
Methods
Respirable dust exposures concentrations (n = 1383) measured within the member companies of IMA-Europe were used to compare compliance decisions between the three measurement strategies. A total of 210 SEGs of which 158 with repeated measurements were analysed. An R studio OHcomplianceStrategies package was created for the purpose.
Results
The old EN689 strategy resulted in the highest number of compliant SEGs in the preliminary tests and statistical test (49–52% and 83%) with lower percentages of compliance with the new EN689 standard (32–44% and 71%). The percentage of non-compliant SEGs was relatively similar between the old and new EN689 for the preliminary tests (1–12% versus 6–11%). However, the new EN689 declared almost twofold more SEGs non-compliant when applying the statistical test (29% versus 17%). The BOHS-NVvA individual test showed results in between the 26% non-compliant SEGs.
Conclusion
This study showed differences in compliance decisions between the old and new EN689, with the new EN689 being considerably more stringent and resulting in more non-compliant SEGs."
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