Exposure assessment under the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation

REACH Regulation Occupational and Environmental Exposure Modeling

In countries worldwide, chemicals in the workplace and the environment are subject to government standards and regulations that are based on science and research. When our ChemRisk team contributed to a European Union (EU) initiative looking to review the safety of eight chemicals for industrial or professional use, we performed occupational and environmental exposure modeling. The eight substances are being registered under the EU’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation.

Using several modeling tools and strategies, we completed the required environment and human health assessments for the chemicals. Our scientists developed novel exposure assessment approaches such as environmental assessments of hydrolysis products—products that break down in water—for substances that have very short half-lives in water, which is the time it takes for the substance to reduce by half in water. Our conclusions about safe or unsafe use were frequently determined by a small subset of critical exposure assumptions.

We suggested that downstream user guidance and trade association interaction, for those who buy their chemicals in the EU, were essential to efficiently complete REACH exposure assessments.