OECD: Guidance Document For Exposure Assessment Based On Environmental Monitoring (2013)
Description:
This document describes the basic methodology used to conduct an exposure assessment based on environmental monitoring data, summarising the main facts and issues to be considered. Although there are fundamental differences between human and environmental exposure assessment methodologies, there are still common approaches for using monitoring data, and these constitute the main focus of this document.
This document also gives an example of how monitoring data could be used in an exposure
assessment, and discusses the possible links between the use of monitoring data and an approach that uses modelling results. The nature of the monitoring data, properties of the measurements, and characteristics of the concentration distributions are discussed from the perspective of their application in exposure assessment. The key issues for the use of monitoring data in exposure assessment are:
· General considerations when using environmental monitoring data for the purpose of exposure assessment
· Fundamental properties of monitoring data
· Analytical methods: selectivity and sensitivity
· Representativeness of monitoring data in the spatial and temporal distribution of environmental concentrations
· Consistency of monitoring and modelling approaches, temporal variation of environmental concentrations, and density of sampling points for specific assessment purposes
· Statistical data analysis and metric selection.
Guidance is provided on how to deal with these issues, illustrated with examples.
Why this Tool/Guidance?
This document provides useful information on exposure assessment methodology.
Continue to: