Many companies would find it useful to have a publicly available database
recording exposures to particular substances, with contextual information. The
European Union's Registration, Evaluations, Authorisation, and restriction of
Chemicals regulation has increased interest in this.

It has been suggested that journals should require detailed publication of
exposure data with papers. But there are problems for researchers, for whom the
data are a valuable resource which has been obtained with effort and often
ingenuity. The publication could also raise problems of confidentiality and
liability, and those who have to put the effort in publication are not those
who benefit.

Also, there are the problems of hostile critics misusing the information - for
example, industry reanalysing data to counter any regulatory implications of a
study - and this raises serious wider issues of editorial policy.

More information:

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