A paper, published in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, provides an outline
of the Advanced REACH Tool (ART) version 1.0 and a discussion of how it could
be further developed.

ART is a higher tier exposure assessment tool that combines mechanistically
modelled inhalation exposure predictions with available exposure data using a
Bayesian approach. ART assesses exposure for scenarios across different plants
and sites. Estimates are provided for different percentiles of the exposure
distribution and confidence intervals around the estimate. It also produces
exposure estimates in the absence of data, but uncertainty of the estimates
will decrease when results of exposure measurements are included.

The tool has been calibrated using a broad range of exposure data and provides
estimates for exposure to vapours, mists, and dusts. ART has a robust and
stable conceptual basis but will be refined in the future and should therefore
be considered an evolving system. High-priority areas for future research are
identified in this paper and include the integration of partially analogous
measurement series, inclusion of company and site-specific assessments, user
decision strategies linked to ART predictions, evaluation of validity and
reliability of ART, exploring the possibilities for incorporating the dermal
route and integration of ART predictions with tools for modelling internal
dose.

ART is initially developed in the scope of REACH but is equally useful for
exposure assessment in other areas.

More information

AplusA-online.de - Source: The Annals of Occupational Hygiene