ReviewHazard and risk assessment of industrial chemicals in the occupational context in europe: some current issues☆
Introduction
Genuine toxicity has occurred, and continues to occur, in people exposed to chemicals at work. In the UK, thousands of such cases are reported each year. Skin problems caused by irritation and/or sensitisation, and respiratory diseases including asthma and long-term problems of dust or fibre accumulation in the lungs are especially prominent (Keynes et al., 1996, Jones et al., 1998, Cherry et al., 2000). This is not intended to be an emotive introduction; however, it does indicate that in the workplace there is real-life toxicity occurring that needs to be addressed. In addition, there are many other instances of claims of, or conjecture about, potential adverse effects in workers exposed to chemicals, together with issues of data availability, sufficiency, interpretation and use in a regulatory context; all of which adds up to a substantial and challenging agenda.
This paper discusses a number of current issues surrounding the assessment of the toxicological hazards of industrial and general commercial chemicals and the risks to health that might be posed by exposure to them in an occupational environment. This perspective comes at a time when considerable change is being considered in Europe in relation to many elements of the established regulatory regime and procedures involved.
The intention of the paper is to focus more on the toxicological issues than on the detail of the regulatory system, which the reader can find in the references cited. Nevertheless, a brief outline of the regulatory principles involved is perhaps merited at the outset.
In the European Union (EU), the manner in which the toxicology of industrial chemicals is characterised and used in regulatory decision-making in the occupational context is based on the following concepts. Suppliers of chemicals should convey to the recipients of their chemicals information on toxicological hazards, accompanied by simple safety advice, via EU-standardised labelling and safety data sheets. Recipients and users of chemicals (and manufacturers/suppliers in relation to their own sites) are responsible for understanding their local situation. With reference to the hazard information supplied, they are responsible for assessing and appropriately managing the extent of worker exposure so as to eliminate, or at least minimise the risk of toxicity being expressed. Regulatory authorities across the EU have established this regulatory framework and also play more specific roles, such as defining how some substances should be labelled, or specifying occupational exposure limits for individual chemicals.
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Data availability and hazard identification
Key to all of the above is toxicological knowledge. Very many chemicals were commercially manufactured, and supplied to others, in the UK, EU and across the world, before legislation was in place requiring any systematic approach to characterising their toxicological properties. About 20 years ago, when the European Economic Community, the EEC as it was then, was in the process of introducing such legislation for the first time, for what were to be “new” substances (see below), an inventory was
Assessment of risk and the setting of “health-protective” exposure standards
In many areas of regulatory toxicology, when assessing risk or setting recommended exposure limits or standards, there is a strong tradition, stretching back about 50 years, of using so-called default uncertainty factors to allow for unknown but potential variabilities, based on an assumption of possible enhanced responsiveness in some exposed humans compared with the responses seen in the available animal and human toxicological data for a substance (IPCS, 1987, Lu, 1988). A default
Asthma
A current major concern in the field of occupational exposure to industrial chemicals is the reported incidence of occupationally-induced asthma. From data reported to the SWORD (Surveillance of Work Related and Occupational Respiratory Disease) scheme by chest and occupational physicians it is estimated that about 1000 new cases of substance-induced asthma are occurring each year in UK workplaces (McDonald et al., 2000). The most frequently identified causative agents are isocyanates, flour
Conclusion
Toxicology remains very important and relevant to today's occupational environment; toxicity still occurs and there are ill-health problems still to be conquered (and also possibly new threats to be spotted in advance and headed off). There are numerous scientific issues that remain unresolved, where our knowledge and understanding are inadequate; a few examples have been discussed in this paper. There is also considerable agitation within the EU regulatory system, both in terms of the
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The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the UK Health and Safety Executive.