Schenk Linda, Hansson Sven Ove, Rudén Christina, Gilek Michael
Södertörn University College, School of Life Sciences, 14189 Huddinge, Sweden.
Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2008 Mar;50(2):261-70. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2007.12.004. Epub 2007 Dec 23.
Occupational exposure limits (OELs) are used as an important regulatory instrument to protect workers' health from adverse effects of chemical exposures. The OELs mirror the outcome of the risk assessment and risk management performed by the standard setting actor. In this study we compared the OELs established by 18 different organisations or national regulatory agencies. The OELs were compared with respect to: (1) what chemicals have been selected and (2) the average level of exposure limits for all chemicals. Our database contains OELs for a total of 1341 substances; of these 25 substances have OELs from all 18 organisations while more than one-third of the substances are only regulated by one organisation. The average level of the exposure limits has declined during the past 10 years for 6 of the 8 organisations in our study for which historical data were available; it has increased for Poland and remained nearly unchanged for Sweden. The average level of OELs differs substantially between organisations; the US OSHA exposure limits are (on average) nearly 40 % higher than those of Poland. The scientific or policy-related motivations for these differences remain to be analysed.
职业接触限值（OELs）是一种重要的监管手段，用于保护工人健康免受化学物质接触的不利影响。职业接触限值反映了标准制定机构进行的风险评估和风险管理的结果。在本研究中，我们比较了18个不同组织或国家监管机构制定的职业接触限值。比较职业接触限值时考虑了以下两个方面：（1）所选的化学物质；（2）所有化学物质的接触限值平均水平。我们的数据库包含总共1341种物质的职业接触限值；其中25种物质在所有18个组织中都有职业接触限值，而超过三分之一的物质仅由一个组织进行监管。在我们研究的8个有历史数据的组织中，有6个组织的接触限值平均水平在过去10年中有所下降；波兰的接触限值平均水平有所上升，瑞典的则几乎保持不变。不同组织之间职业接触限值的平均水平差异很大；美国职业安全与健康管理局（OSHA）的接触限值（平均）比波兰的高出近40%。这些差异背后的科学或政策相关动机仍有待分析。
