Occupational exposure assessment

N. C. Hawkins, S. K. Norwood, and J. C. R.oAi, A Strategy for Occupational Exposure Assessment, American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax, Va., 1991. 

Regulatory agencies have adopted an internationally accepted tiered approach to occupational exposure assessment. Similar tiered approaches are also used... 

The need for aggregate and cumulative non-occupational exposure assessments, and lower reference doses for all assessments, means that some pesticides will fail lower-tier risk assessments and without more refined exposure data they might even fail higher-tiered assessments. For example, in North America many of the residential uses of the OPs have been discontinued as a result of the aggregate risk assessments. As a result, there has been increased emphasis on gathering better toxicology and exposure data to reduce the conservatisms that are contained in the current system. 

Stewart, PA NCI, NIH Studies of occupational cancer—occupational exposure assessment Division of Cancer Etiology... 

Airborne solvent concentrations usually vary much with time. Although repeated random personal sampling is theoretically the optimal method for inhalation exposure assessment, it is very time-consuming and does not necessarily reveal the reasons for exposure. Often, occupational hygiene surveys are conducted only to make certain that the concentrations of air impurities are in compliance with flic OELs. Also, the European standard (EN 689/95) for occupational exposure assessment is primarily issued for this purpose. It would, however, be practical if the measurements conducted would also provide useful information for planning of remedial measures if flic measurements reveal those to be necessary. For this purpose, it is important to recognize flic difference between manual tasks and process industries. 

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