Web links, documents and free tools

Not free of charge, but recognised standards are:

• EN 689:2018 + AC:2019. The EU standard to establish employers' odds of compliance with limit values.
• AIHA: A Strategy for Assessing and Managing Occupational Exposures (Fourth edition, 2015).

Publicly available free documents include:

• Nearly final draft of EN689 from AEHI.es.
• BOHS/NVvA guidance: Testing Compliance with OELs for Airborne Substances. The screening and group test are in line with EN689. Individual compliance tests are not recommended.
• EU Practical guidelines within the framework of Directive 98/24/EC and the Dutch version.
• ECHA worker exposure assessment guidance for task-based exposure estimation under REACH.
• Le Code de Travail Annexe 1.1.2: Demarche de controle.
• Germany: TRGS 402.
• Catalan: Estrategia de mostreig d'agents quimics a l'aire.
• Italian: Protezione da agenti chimici.
• Leidel & Busch NIOSH 77-173 Occupational exposure sampling strategy manual.
• Dutch: Beoordeling van de blootstelling aan gevaarlijke stoffen.

Free sources with measurement methods:

• Air sampling methods related to the second list of EU IOELVs.
• GESTIS / IFA International platforms measuring hazardous substances.
• INRS MetroPol sampling and analytical methods (French).
• NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods.
• OSHA Sampling and Analytical Methods.
• CASLab Analyte Search.

Not free of charge:

• DOHSBase: bibliography of sampling methods for workplace air and biological monitoring.
• IFA-Arbeitsmappe Messung von Gefahrstoffen.

• DGUV IFA Exposure database MEGA.
• INRS Occupational exposure levels assessment tool, replacing older Solvex and Fibrex use.
• COLCHIC.
• OSHA Chemical Exposure Health Data.
• UK National Exposure Database (NEDB).
• ACGIH data elements for occupational exposure databases and EU core information guidance.

An employer needs an OELV for all chemicals to which workers are exposed at the premises or under the employer's responsibility. These values are used as a reference for assessing health risk and legal compliance.

4.1 Finding a suitable public or private OELV

• DOHSBase OELVs: chemical substances and OELVs, including highest possible hierarchy and Kick-off levels.
• GESTIS Limit Values Database and its bibliography of international OELV sources.
• SER OELV website (mostly Dutch).

4.1.1 Holistic, unbiased health-based OELVs

• EU SCOEL recommendations.
• German MAK and BAT values.
• Health Council of the Netherlands / DECOS.
• Nordic Expert Group.
• ANSES French reference health values.
• ECHA RAC opinions on scientific evaluations of OELs.
• ACGIH TLVs and BEIs, including examples such as white spirit/stoddard solvent that strongly eviate from SCOEL SUM 087.

4.1.2 Health/toxicology based values

• Begrundungen zu Arbeitsplatzgrenzwerten and TRGS 900.
• INRS Fiches toxicologiques.
• ECHA and registered substances / DNEL or DMEL information.
• GESTIS DNEL Database.
• OARS WEELs (scroll down for the list), AIHA WEELs.
• EMA guideline for health-based exposure limits and ASTM WK59975.

4.1.3 Regulatory OELVs

• Germany TRGS 900.
• UK EH40/2005 Workplace exposure limits.
• France VLEP.
• Netherlands legal limits (in Dutch).
• Belgique legal limits (in Dutch).
• Belgique, les valeurs limites d'exposition professionnelle (VLEP).
• Italy OELV legislation.
• Norway limit values.
• Sweden OELVs.

4.1.4 USA federal OELVs and 4.1.5 Kick-off

• OSHA PELs.
• DOHSBase Kick-off levels.
• ECHA classification and labelling information.

4.2 Guidance to deduce kick-off values or OELVs

• NIOSH Occupational Exposure Banding and NIOSH OEB e-Tool.
• Patchwork 2.8.
• ECETOC TR-101 Data-poor substances guidance.
• ECHA Chapter R.8: DN/MELs.
• ECHA Appendix to Chapter R.8: occupational exposure limits.

In some countries, workplace air exposure exceedance can be controlled through single-sample exceedance tests. In Europe, compliance control is performed using hybrid decision schemes or SEG exposure distribution compliance testing.

5.1 Single-sample exceedance test and measurement uncertainty

• OSHA Technical Manual: post-inspection activities and sampling error calculations.
• Compliance officer test.
• EN 689 and EN 482.
• IFA measurement uncertainty guidance and IFA Excel application for gases and vapours.
• NPR-CEN/TR 17055:2017.
• ISO/IEC Guide 98-3:2008 and JCGM 100.
• NEN 7779:2018.
• NIOSH 77-173 table D-1 with CVt values.
• OSHA sampling and analytical error calculations.
• EA-4/02 measurement uncertainty of flow calibration equipment.

5.2 Hybrid decision schemes

The EN689 preliminary test compares the maximum value of 3 to 5 PAS workplace air measurements with the OELV and fractions of the OELV. Hybrid schemes such as the BOHS/NVvA screening test and the French Code de Travail approach may delay compliance decisions and underestimate workers' health risk for high GSD values.

BOHS/NVvA guidance; French Code de Travail; NYF EN689 presentation.

5.3 Apps for (log)normal SEG exposure-distribution compliance testing

• IH-Aligner, a hub to exchange data between the tools below.
• BWStat V3.
• HYGINIST; AIHCe 1990 poster; YouTube demo; non-detects regression demo.
• Try HYGINIST-web under development.
• IHStat-Bayes mind map, Excel AddIn and Setup.
• IHDA-AIHA.
• EXPOSTATS and NDExpo.
• ALTREX.

Workplace air exposure distributions are often represented by the lognormal distribution when exposure variability is influenced by multiplicative workplace factors. The tails of the distribution may deviate because of measurement uncertainty or physicochemical constraints.

The Geometric Standard Deviation (GSD) is the lognormal descriptive statistic for variability. It is the antilog of the standard deviation of the logarithms of the results and is considered a relevant descriptor for substance/SEG or REACH t-CS combinations.

• NIOSH 77-173 p124 on GSD and CVt.
• ECHA REACH occupational exposure assessment guidance.
• Kromhout and Rappaport (1993).
• Tielemans et al. (2008).
• BOHS Conference 2013, GSDs in the real world, and distribution of long-term GSDs in chemical industry SEGs.
• INRS ND 2231.
• Statistics and representative measurements.

• ACGIH additive formula.
• miXie tool.
• Effect-specific limit method for solvents.
• Raoult and XLUNIFAC method for liquid mixtures.
• Critical Component or DPD+ approach.

• TREXMO 2.0.
• TREXMO v3.
• AIHA tools and links for exposure assessment strategies.
• Chesar, chemical risk assessments under REACH.
• Advanced REACH Tool (ART).
• Stoffenmanager.
• SkinPerm.
• UPERCUT.
• Seirich.
• IndusChemFate.
• EPA ExpoBox.

Substance identity and hazard

• ECHA Information on Chemicals.
• GESTIS substance database.
• IARC Monographs available.
• Health Council of the Netherlands.
• DOHSBase Substance Classification.
• NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.
• Safe Work Australia hazardous chemical information.

Physchem databases

• eChemPortal.
• PubChem.
• Accessing ChemIDplus content from PubChem.
• NIST Chemistry WebBook.
• EPA ChemView.
• FatePointer.
• EPI Suite.
• EPA Toxicity Forecasting (ToxCast).
• ChemSpider.
• Chemicalize.
• ATSDR Toxic Substances Portal.

• Zelfinspectie I-SZW gevaarlijke stoffen.
• SER Databank Grenswaarden Stoffen op de Werkplek.
• DOHSBase.
• AI interne instructie (2007).
• Arbokennisnet: Kennisdossier Gevaarlijke Stoffen.
• Nederlandse Vereniging voor Arbeidshygiene.
• Belgische Arbeidshygiene vereniging BSOH.
• BSOH handige tools.
• Arboportaal.
• Arbo Startpagina.