• Project number: F 2493
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Ongoing Project
• Planned end: 2025-10-31

Description:

REACH, the Biocides Regulation and other chemicals legislation, are intended to prevent harmful effects of chemical substances and products on workers. Therefore, they require the registrants and the competent authorities to carry out reliable risk assessments. The risk assessment is based on hazard characteristics of substances and mixtures, toxicologically derived effect limit values, and worker exposure.

In the absence of available measured data, the estimation of the exposure of workers to chemical substances is often based on models. In the projects F2467 and F2492 of the project bundle "Modular Exposure Models for OSH Risk Assessment in Chemical Safety" 7 exposure models have been (further) developed and/or evaluated with regard to their validity. In the present project of the project bundle, these prototypes and, if possible, two further worker exposure models will be bundled in a modular software and will be provided publicly. The different models differ significantly in their scope of application and the necessary input parameters.

The technical development of the modular software aims at ensuring the continued usability of the models as well their improvement. In addition, models not previously available in this form will be supplied and the overall user-friendliness of the models will be increased. The modular software allows a transfer of the latest scientific findings into regulatory practice, now and in the future. Overall, the purpose of the software is the facilitation of  a scientifically sound implementation of the requirements of European chemicals legislation for various stakeholders.