Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational Health and Safety serves to assure the safety of people such as production workers professionally exposed to chemicals. The assessment is generally for a life-long exposure during 8 hours daily without holidays.
The pharmacological efficacy and the toxicity can be classified as follows:
|
Effects seen at occupational exposure level of |
Occupational exposure band and category |
|---|---|
|
> 1000 µg/m3 |
1: Nontoxic |
|
100 – 1000 µg/m3 |
2: Practically nontoxic |
|
10 – 100 µg/m3 |
3: Slightly toxic |
|
1 – 10 µg/m3 |
4: Toxic |
|
< 1 µg/m3 |
5: Highly toxic |
A possible assessment form including references is shown here. It is based on the corresponding EMA guideline referenced in the assessment form.
The form can be accompanied by a summary of the relevant toxicity findings, as far as toxicity data are available.
These findings are used in the PDE table for calculation of the permitted daily exposure (PDE) for compounds with some toxicity data.
In the absence of sufficient and reliable toxicity data, the threshold of toxicological concern TTC concept of Kroes et al. (2004)¹ and Dolan et al. (2005)¹can be applied.
The generic Toxtree software can estimate the toxic hazard associated with a particular chemical intermediate or drug by applying a decision tree approach as published partly already by Cramer et al. 1976¹ and in later publications. The software is well established and used by various institutions including the European Commission and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
¹ Whole paper accessible only after login or by paying fee