Case Studies

Criteria Documents for Occupational Exposure Limits

In 2005, the IOM prepared summary Criteria Documents for the European Commission to support the setting of Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) in Europe for 12 organic compounds including carcinogens such as acrylamide and irritants such as acrylic acid. The documents outline the chemical and physical properties of the compounds, their use within the EU and their toxicology including acute effects, irritancy, sensitisation, long term effects, cancer risks and reproductive toxicity. These documents will be used by the Scientific Committee on OELs (SCOEL) in their deliberations and will eventually underpin the Indicative Occupational Exposure Limit Values (IOELVs) that are adopted.

Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Central Scotland

In 2003, the IOM led a study that quantified the impacts of air pollution on health in Central Scotland and investigated the relative importance of industrial, traffic and distant source as a cause of adverse effects. The results of the study suggested that in 1998, about 250 deaths may have been brought forward as a result of exposure to airborne particles compared with a total of 33,000 deaths in the region as a whole. About 1% of about 52000 emergency hospital admissions for cardiovascular or respiratory illness may have been due to airborne particles and the long term effects of particle exposure may contribute to a loss of life expectancy of about 2 months over a lifetime. Surprisingly, the biggest impacts were associated with emissions from distant rather than local sources. Improvements in air quality over the last few years, mean that current impacts in Central Scotland would be much lower than in 1998. The full report is available from the Air Quality area of the Scottish Executive's website (www.scotland.gov.uk). Following on from this study, the IOM undertook assessments of the air quality impacts and wider health impacts of two proposed motorway schemes in Central Scotland for the Executive.

Expert witness

In 2010, the IOM were asked to provide expert opinion in relation to a claim for exacerbation of bronchial hyper-reactivity (asthma) as a consequence of acute exposure to high levels of nuisance dust in the workplace during the training of apprentices in construction practices which involved exposure to irritant nuisance dusts.

The IOM were instructed to act on behalf of the Defendant to undertake a review of the Defendants procedures and supporting documentation in light of the Claimants allegations. A site visit was arranged to inspect the Defendant’s premises and to undertake representative personal exposure sampling of the Claimants work activities. Following the site inspection, a report was prepared which reviewed the potential for causation of the claimed injuries and any consequent liabilities of the Defendant. At the same time the expert has an overriding duty to assist the Court and this duty overrides any obligations to the instructing party.

In addition to the practical skills, experience and knowledge of the physiological effects of nuisance dust exposure and duties of both the Claimant and Defendant with respect to the COSHH Regulations 2002, the IOM were required to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the legal system and their obligations under the Civil Procedure Rules, thereby ensuring that the instructing solicitor's requirements were understood and met in full, in a timely and efficient manner.

The Defendant was successful in their defence of the allegations and the Claimant discontinued the action. The IOM were praised by the solicitor for their comprehensive and detailed report concerning the circumstances and nature of the allegations.

Chemical Risk Assessment

A multinational petrochemical company sought IOM’s risk assessment expertise during their development of a new type of gasoline with some promising properties in terms of fuel economy and CO2 emissions. Whilst the launch of new types of gasoline is a routine business activity for the company, this case was special due to novel components in the additives used with the fuel. The company had conducted a range of risk assessments, including human health, environmental toxicity and industrial hygiene assessments along the supply chain of the product. However, the assessments needed to use read-across data due to the limited availability of information on the new additive’s component substance, and the company sought an independent review of their risk assessments. A report from IOM provided assurance that the correct processes were being followed, that the assumptions used in the risk assessments were appropriate, and that no critical gaps had been overlooked.

Nanotechnology Risk

Since 2005, IOM through its SAFENANO initiative has prepared a series of reports for UK government departments and agencies, most notably DEFRA, on the potential risks to human health and the environment arising from Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves the development of materials and processes at the nanoscale (10-9m) exploiting the novel properties of materials at this scale and is an underpinning activity driving development in many fields including material design, construction, coating technology, electronics and drug delivery.

These reports have been used by the UK Government in developing strategy and formulating its response to concerns about health issues. The most recent in this series is the EMERGNANO report, published in 2009. In EMERGNANO (http://www.safenano.org/ConsultancyAndReviews_DEFRA.aspx)
we identified and reviewed ongoing research on a worldwide basis to assess the extent to which of research underway would address the priority issues previously identified by Defra and to identify further gaps. The report has become a landmark report and has been widely used to inform UK Government Policy in this area, most importantly in relation to the 2009 House of Lords Enquiry into Nanomaterials in Food (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldsctech.htm) and in the development in the 2010 UK Government Strategy for Nanotechnology: Small Technologies, great opportunities (http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/nano/)

ICMM Good Practice Guidance

The Institute, through its Centre for Health Impact Assessment (CHIA), was commissioned by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) to lead the development of two good practice guides for the mining and metals sector. One focused on the health and wellbeing of employees and the other on local communities:

1. Good Practice Guidance on Occupational Risk Assessment
2. Good Practice Guidance on Health Impact Assessment

The project started in late 2008 with the occupational health risk assessment (HRA) guide being published in mid 2009 and the health impact assessment (HIA) guide being published in early 2010. The project was coordinated by an international steering group made up of Health, Safety and Environment professionals from the mining and metals corporate members of ICMM.

Both guides were innovative in building on existing guidance from other industrial sectors and developing a practical framework that:

 

North Staffordshire 4 Research Health Impact Assessments

The Institute, through its Centre for Health Impact Assessment (CHIA), was commissioned to undertake 4 Health Impact Assessments (HIA) by a partnership involving:

Asbestos Risk Assessment

The IOM has undertaken several asbestos risk assessments in connection with incidents of asbestos exposure. Most commonly, these are incidents that have taken place leading to a need to explain to those who were exposed what will be the consequent risks to future health. Generally, a careful and independent analysis provides reassurance that the isolated incident gives rise to a risk that is small in comparison to other more familiar risks. Occasionally, we have given advice where the risks were not negligible, but even then it is generally helpful for those involved to have clear advice.

In some instances, asbestos risk assessments are used to assess whether land should be declared as contaminated by Local Authorities. One such study was conducted on behalf of the Local Government Authorities in South Cambridgeshire to assess the level of risk arising from the presence of asbestos cement on rural rights of way and farm tracks. With realistic estimates of exposure for regular users of these rights of way/tracks, all predicted lifetime excess risks were below the boundary of consensus values for risks that could be deemed “acceptable”. However, under “worst case” assumptions, some of the rights of way/tracks gave rise to predicted risks that approach the upper boundary of those consensus values.

In this case, the IOM report is available from the IOM website at http://www.iom-world.org/pubs/IOM_TM0507-rev.pdf. The report was the basis for the Local Authorities to make rational decisions on the best use of public money for the benefit of their communities.

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