• Project number: F 2567
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Ongoing Project
• Planned end: 2027-04-30

Description:

It is fundamental to the protection of workers that their exposure to hazardous substances is comprehensively assessed. In addition to the inhalation and dermal routes, ingestion (oral exposure) can also contribute to individuals’ overall occupational exposure. To date, however, there have been no standardized measurement methods and hardly any measurement data available for the practical assessment of this pathway. The research objective of this project is therefore the scientific (further) development of various methods of this kind and their evaluation by trialing them on employees who handle liquids in concrete workplace activities.

For this purpose, the current state of knowledge about published measurement methods for oral exposure in the workplace will be reviewed. This will supply the basis on which new methods will be developed or existing ones further developed for activities involving the handling of liquids. The final step will be to evaluate and test the methods’ practical suitability by applying them in simulated real-world scenarios and at representative workplaces.

This will make it possible to measure workers’ oral exposure in the future. In addition, the project will supply the scientifically sound measurement results that will be crucial for model evaluations of the kind planned in project F 2554.