Occupational exposure banding

There are no occupational exposure limits for many hazardous substances which may require control of inhalation exposures. The necessary data and other resources required for setting such limits is restricted and unlikely to match the potential demand. A hazard categorisation scheme was, therefore, developed for application within the chemical industry. The scheme used readily-available information on toxicological endpoints to place hazardous substances into a limited range of hazard categories, expressed as Occupational Exposure Bands. These Bands could be used as a basis for risk assessment and the selection of appropriate control regimes. 10 refs. EUROPEAN COMMUNITY EUROPEAN UNION UK WESTERN EUROPE... 

Chemical hidustries Association (CIA) (1997). Control of Substances Hazardous to Health — Guidance on Allocating Occupational Exposure Bands (Regulation 7), London CIA. 

As with the case of mass, there are several approaches to metrics for this aspect. One can simply sum numbers and/or mass of chemicals possessing hazards in different areas for example, process safety, occupational exposure, or environmental hazard. Typically, most companies will use a banding approach for materials that allows a quick identification of the hazard category, and usually marries hazard with a suggested control approach for example, layers of protection, pressure relief valves, and so on. One is then able to rapidly identify issues and potential opportunities for elimination, substitution, or control. 

Dose Banding is an important way of diminishing those losses as weU. Certain cancer chemotherapies are now more and more carried out with standardised doses instead of with individual doses. This concept of Dose Banding has been developed in the early 90s in United Kingdom. If standardised doses can be prepared in advance, many advantages occur such as immediate availability for the patient, diminished workload and occupational exposure for the pharmaceutical staff, possibility of quality control, less wastage of precious products. 

Biochemical changes such as increased aminolaevulinate excretion and inhibition of amino-laevulinate dehydrase may be detected in urine and blood, respectively, at blood lead levels of 0.4 to 0.6 mg mL-1. Anemia is a late feature, however. Neurotoxicity may be detectable at blood lead levels of 0.8 to 1.0 mg mL-1. At blood lead levels greater than 1.2 mg mL-1, encephalopathy occurs. Peripheral nerve palsies are rare, and the foot and wrist drop, which were once characteristic of occupational lead poisoning, only occur after excessive exposure and are now rarely seen. Similarly, seizures and impaired consciousness may result from involvement of the CNS. Bone changes are usually seen in children and are detected as bands at the growing ends of the bones and a change in bone shape. 

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