Stakeholder meeting: Exposure assessment for REACH

IOM along with several other European research organisations will run a stakeholder meeting to discuss exposure and exposure scenario development in the context of REACH. The workshop will be held on December 4, 2006 at the CEFIC offices in Brussels from 12.30-17.30 hours.

The focus of the workshop is on the need to develop worker exposure assessment tools. The current approach used for regulatory exposure assessment is to use conservative screening models as a first step in the development of exposure scenarios. Several candidate “first tier” screening models will be discussed during the workshop. However, if these models cannot deliver the required accuracy then there is a need for a second tier model producing more realistic estimates of exposure. This more advanced model should replace the currently used EASE model, which has been shown to be unsuitable (See IOM reports listed below for some more background and access these through our on-line Library).

A proposal for a second tier exposure assessment model has been developed by a consortium of scientists from IOM (Institute of Occupational Medicine, UK), HSL (Health and Safety Laboratory, UK), BAuA (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Germany), AMI (National Institute of Occupational Health, DK), IRAS (Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, NL), ArboUnie (NL) and TNO (NL).

The approach was developed during and after the 'Future of EASE' workshop organised by HSE (Health and Safety Executive, UK) in Edinburgh some time ago.

The proposed programme for the workshop is as follows:

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