Comparing the Advanced REACH Tool's (ART) estimates with Switzerland's occupational exposure data

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Version: Author's accepted manuscript
Serval ID
serval:BIB_CF3F303B1FF5
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Comparing the Advanced REACH Tool's (ART) estimates with Switzerland's occupational exposure data
Journal
Annals of Work Exposures and Health
Author(s)
Savic Nenad, Gasic Bojan, Schinkel Jody, Vernez David
ISSN
2398-7308
2398-7316
Publication state
Published
Issued date
10/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
61
Number
8
Pages
954-964
Language
english
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.
Keywords
Occupational Exposure/analysis, Models, Statistical, Switzerland
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
17/01/2018 14:23
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:49
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