M4: Exposure Factors for TSCA Risk Evaluations

Kansas City Convention Center 

Room: 2504 A 

CM Credit Hours: 1 

Under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. EPA often requests or requires occupational exposure data and information to conduct its risk evaluations. When lacking contextual information, EPA employs default, conservative assumptions about occupational exposure scenarios and the associated exposure factors (e.g., task duration and frequency). Although tasks often are similar among sites, the frequency, engineering controls used, and workers engaged can vary from one industry to another. In estimating exposures it is important to identify exposure determinants to inform what data can be grouped, within and across facilities and industries. This presentation will discuss: 1) the use of refined assumptions and exposure factors that accurately reflect industry conditions; 2) the importance of providing a representative distribution of exposure factors in a harmonized format; 3) approaches to characterize and document inhalation and dermal exposure factors; 4) the challenges and opportunities of the processes; and 5) recommendations to improve the quality of contextual information.

Upon completion, the participant will be able to:

• Recognize the importance of contextual information in workplace exposures.
• Assess the quality of the contextual data and propose improvement strategies.
• Review the approaches to contextual information and occupational exposures.
• Implement these approaches to submit information to the EPA under TSCA.
• Collect such information in a harmonized fashion. 

Intermediate

Q&A

Corporation/Company

All Industries

Manufacturing

Oil & Gas

Also part of the Virtual Program

Available as part of AIHA Connect OnDemand

Chemical Hazards

Hazard Recognition/Exposure Assessment

Risk Assessment and Management