Margins of Safety Provided by COSHH Essentials and the ILO Chemical Control Toolkit

Details

• Personal Author:
  Jones RM ; Nicas M
• Description:
  COSHH Essentials, developed by the UK Health and Safety Executive, and the Chemical Control Toolkit (Toolkit) proposed by the International Labor Organization, are 'control banding' approaches to workplace risk management intended for use by proprietors of small and medium-sized businesses. Both systems group chemical substances into hazard bands based on toxicological endpoint and potency. COSSH Essentials uses the European Union's Risk-phrases (R-phrases), whereas the Toolkit uses R-phrases and the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Each hazard band is associated with a range of airborne concentrations, termed exposure bands, which are to be attained by the implementation of recommended control technologies. Here we analyze the margin of safety afforded by the systems and, for each hazard band, define the minimal margin as the ratio of the minimum airborne concentration that produced the toxicological endpoint of interest in experimental animals to the maximum concentration in workplace air permitted by the exposure band. We found that the minimal margins were always <100, with some ranging to <1, and inversely related to molecular weight. The Toolkit-GHS system generally produced margins equal to or larger than COSHH Essentials, suggesting that the Toolkit-GHS system is more protective of worker health. Although, these systems predict exposures comparable with current occupational exposure limits, we argue that the minimal margins are better indicators of health protection. Further, given the small margins observed, we feel it is important that revisions of these systems provide the exposure bands to users, so as to permit evaluation of control technology capture efficiency. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Chemistry Engineering Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Hypersensitivity Inhalation Exposure Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Quality Control Respiratory System Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Solvents Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Aerosol-particles Air-contamination Airborne-particles Author Keywords: Chemical Control Toolkit Biological-effects Biological-function Chemical-deposition Chemical-hypersensitivity Chemical-properties Control-technology Control Banding COSHH Essentials Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Fumes Health-hazards Health-standards Inhalants Inhalation-studies Injury-prevention Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs Occupations Physiological-effects Physiological-measurements Physiological-response Qualitative-analysis Quality-standards Quantitative-analysis Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-research Safety Margins Statistical-analysis Toxic-vapors Vapors Work-areas Work-environment Work-practices

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• ISSN:
  0003-4878
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  149-156
• Volume:
  50
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037261
• Citation:
  Ann Occup Hyg 2006 Feb; 50(2):149-156
• Contact Point Address:
  Rachael M. Jones, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360
• Email:
  rmjones@berkeley.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:07d06a38c271bb2efa7b3d58d95619daae9c82aeabbc7796eda5adccca36ee4d279bf8da58dd064b4fe78fb12b15567e5b84da064389184deb30e373534ec610
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188378/cdc_188378_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 107.68 KB ]