Exposure assessment
Exposure assessment is the estimation or measurement of exposure to the chemical under investigation during its life cycle and is, with hazard assessment, the basis for risk characterisation. The exposure assessment for the life cycle of a chemical is the main activity in risk assessment and needs input from all sectors involved in industrial chemicals management.
For human health, exposure assessment can consist of characterising exposure to a chemical via environmental media (air, water and soil), food or products. This could consider exposure at different life stages or for different segments of the population (e.g. occupational) and the route (oral, dermal, inhalation), duration and magnitude of exposure.
Ecological exposure characterisation can consist of characterising which ecological receptors can be exposed (e.g. birds, mammals, fish, vegetation etc.), the pathways of exposure, and the duration and magnitude of exposure.
With high resources, the step proposed for the implementation of this sub-element is:
- Carry out your own exposure assessment, tailoring it to the use of the substance in your country. This could involve generation of exposure/monitoring data if necessary.
Relevant tools
- WHO Human Health Risk Assessment Toolkit: Chemical Hazards
- OECD Emission Scenario Documents
- IPCS Training Module No 3 Chemical Risk Assessment: Human Risk Assessment, Environmental Risk Assessment and Ecological Risk Assessment WHO/IPCS, 1999
- OECD: Descriptions Of Existing Models And Tools Used For Exposure Assessment Results Of OECD Survey (2012)
- OECD: Guidance Document On The Use Of Multimedia Models For Estimating Overall Environmental Persistance And Long-Range Transport (2004)
- OECD: Guidance Document For Exposure Assessment Based On Environmental Monitoring (2013)
- OECD Pov and LRTP Screening Tool
- OECD: eChemPortal
- Case study of Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan