The OECD Satellite Workshop "Current developments of occupational exposure assessment" took place on the 30th August 2016 at BAuA back to back with the subsequent meeting of the OECD Task Force on Exposure Assessment (TFEA).

The presentations covered a wide range of exposure science and provided valuable information on recent results and developments in several occupational exposure research projects in an international context. The workshop hosted presentations by internationally acknowledged experts in the field. Approximately 90 participants followed the presentations and contributed to the lively discussions.

The first session was opened by Martie van Tongeren, Director of Research at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh who gave a talk on the evaluation of exposure models used in REACH. His presentation focussed on a comprehensive review of lower tier exposure tools such as ECETOC TRA, MEASE, STOFFENMANAGER, and the EMKG-EXPO TOOL in the scope of the ETEAM project.

A second presentation which also touched the subject of exposure modeling was given by Anja Baumgärtel from BAuA - Unit 4.4 Measurement of Hazardous Substances. In her talk she introduced a new measurement strategy which was applied for validation studies of Control Guidance Sheets (CGS) in the framework of control banding. Based on the workplace measurement results several products (videos, CGS, good handling description) were created to describe a good working practice for filling of organic solvents into jerrycans, drums and intermediate bulk containers.

The second session dealt with the exposure to biocides and biopesticides: Michael Roitzsch from BAuA - Unit 4.1 Exposure Scenarios introduced a BAuA research project which focussed on workplace measurements of dermal and inhalation exposure of workers during the control of Oak Processionary Moths by spray applications. In a second presentation Frank Dieterich from BAuA - Unit 4.7 Biological Agents gave a general introduction to the exposure measurement of biopesticides such as biocidal active bacteria strains. He presented different sampling and analysis approaches which were based on molecular and microbiological methods.

Dermal exposure was in the scope of the third session which was opened by Jan Urbanus from the Exposure & Health Analytical Sciences Shell Health - Risk Science Team at Brussels. His presentation on dermal exposure assessments of Petroleum Substances gave, on the one hand, an overview on the dermal exposure of workers to heavy fuel oil. On the other hand, dermal exposure of consumers caused by transfer of lubricants and fuel was assessed. Kostas Kasiotis from the BPI - Laboratory of Toxicological Control of Pesticides in Athens gave a presentation on first results of BAuA's research project "SysDEA". The aim of this project is the generation of scientific knowledge to improve and standardise measurement methods for dermal exposures to chemicals at the workplace.

The workshop was closed by a presentation on workplace exposure to high-aspect ratio (nano)-materials. Dirk Broßell from BAuA - Unit 4.5 Particulate Hazard-ous Substances, Advanced Materials presented a strategic approach to characterize, classify and quantify hazardous high-aspect ratio materials and to compare work-place exposures to legally defined occupational exposure limit values.

The programme and presentations are available for download here.

Workshop Programme (PDF, 19 KB)

Evaluation of Tier 1 tools for estimating occupational exposure (PDF, 1 MB)
Martie van Tongeren, Institute of Occupational Medicine (Edinburgh)

Validation of control guidance sheets for filling of containers with organic solvents (PDF, 1 MB)
Anja Baumgärtel, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)

Dermal and Inhalation Exposure of Workers During Control of the Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) by Spray Applications (PDF, 784 KB)
Michael Roitzsch, BAuA

Biopesticide Exposure Measurement with Molecular and Microbiological Techniques (PDF, 313 KB)
Frank Dieterich, BAuA

Dermal exposure assessments for REACH dossiers of Petroleum Substances (PDF, 502 KB)
Jan Urbanus, Exposure & Health Analytical Sciences Shell Health - Risk Science Team (Brüssel)

A strategic approach to assess workplace exposure to high-aspect ratio (nano)-materials (HARM) (PDF, 3 MB)
Dirk Broßell, BAuA