Task force highlights lack of data and tools for assessing consumers’ aggregate exposure to chemicals

Brussels, 11 December 2023 – A task force from the Centre for chemical safety assessment (ECETOC) has highlighted a lack of both good data and cross-industry-sector tools and guidance for assessing consumers’ aggregate exposure to chemicals.

‘Aggregate exposure’ is when a person comes into contact with the same chemical in a number of different ways, such as inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact, and/or from different sources, such as cosmetics, foods or medicines (or via the environment). It also considers how long the exposure lasts, as well as how often it occurs.

In the future, cross-sector aggregate exposure assessment will very likely be necessary more often and will gain a higher importance for a variety of stakeholders.

The task force’s ‘Technical Report 142’ reviews the available methodologies for assessing aggregate exposure for consumers that are less precautionary than screening methods, while also being less labour-intensive than in-depth studies.

It found not all consumer exposures can be estimated to the same level of confidence, in particular because while some industry sectors have good exposure input data and assessment tools, many sectors do not, making comparison across sectors uncertain. The task force also noted there was a lack of data available on use and tonnage, e.g. tonnage on market, habits/practices, product use, substance concentration data.

Moreover, while one possible simplified methodology would be to base exposure estimates on the total tonnage produced, the tonnage estimates for each use is rarely available – and also data would need to be available on the number of people exposed to estimate individual exposure.

The task force concluded that although there are high-tier assessments for single substances, which can be learned from and used, there are still too few to cover all of the possible consumer exposures thoroughly.

The task force puts forward a proposal for principles to follow in a stepwise approach to aggregate exposure assessment.

It also recommends that regulators and industry consider ways to make realistic use tonnages and daily use patterns more readily available when there is a real need, e.g. when a concern was identified that can be caused by aggregate exposure.

It further identified that high-level cross-sector regulatory developments would need to set parameters before any guidance could be developed. In particular, the number of consumers exposed, and the frequency of exposure, need careful consideration.

The task force also recommends bringing all assessment tools and models, including the screening spreadsheet tool developed by the Task Force, together onto one platform, which would make the cross-sector assessment process much easier.

In addition, it proposed organising a stakeholder workshop or follow-up ECETOC Task Force based around its report as a way to share experiences across different stakeholders, which could help set some realistic parameters for cross-sector assessment and determine how exposure input data could be collected or generated. The follow-up activity could potentially further develop the spreadsheet tool developed by the Task Force.