Title
Comparing the Advanced REACH Tool's (ART) estimates with Switzerland's occupational exposure data
Author
Savic, N.
Gasic, B.
Schinkel, J.
Vernez, D.
Publication year
2018
Abstract
The Advanced REACH Tool (ART) is the most sophisticated tool used for evaluating exposure levels under the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) regulations. ART provides estimates at different percentiles of exposure and within different confidence intervals (CIs). However, its performance has only been tested on a limited number of exposure data. The present study compares ART's estimates with exposure measurements collected over many years in Switzerland. Measurements from 584 cases of exposure to vapours, mists, powders, and abrasive dusts (wood/stone and metal) were extracted from a Swiss database. The corresponding exposures at the 50th and 90th percentiles were calculated in ART. To characterize the model's performance, the 90% CI of the estimates was considered. ART's performance at the 50th percentile was only found to be insufficiently conservative with regard to exposure to wood/stone dusts, whereas the 90th percentile showed sufficient conservatism for all the types of exposure processed. However, a trend was observed with the residuals, where ART overestimated lower exposures and underestimated higher ones. The median was more precise, however, and the majority (≥60%) of real-world measurements were within a factor of 10 from ART's estimates. We provide recommendations based on the results and suggest further, more comprehensive, investigations. © The Author 2017.
Subject
Life
RAPID - Risk Analysis for Products in Development
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Biomedical Innovation
Healthy Living
Advanced REACH Tool
Model performance and validation
Occupational exposure models
50th percentiles
Confidence interval
European union
Exposure level
Exposure measurement
Model performance
Occupational exposure
REACH
Dust
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxx069
TNO identifier
788259
ISSN
2398-7308
Source
Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 61 (8), 954-964
Document type
article