IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN STANDARDS FOR THE WORKPLACE

The objectives were to describe and discuss the current and proposed E uropean occupational health policy on two categories of substances tha t pose serious effects: those potentially carcinogenic or genotoxic an d those with toxic effects on reproduction. The precautionary principl e was applied to setting standards for the workplace for those two cat egories of substances, to give an impression of the resulting limit va lues and the consequences of the implementation of this precautionary principle. A pragmatic approach was chosen as this starts with substan tial indications of health risks. For the suspected carcinogenic or ge notoxic substances 0.1 mg/m(3) as a precautionary occupational exposur e limit (precautionary OEL) is proposed. For the substances suspected of causing reproductive toxicity the precautionary OEL was derived in three ways, depending on the availability of data and of a current Dut ch workplace standard (MAC, maximum accepted concentration): (a) by ca lculation based on available inhalatory animal data on the risks of re productive toxicity; (b) by adding a safety factor of 10 to the curren t MAC, if no inhalatory animal data on reproductive toxicity are avail able; (c) by using 0.1 mg/m(3) as precautionary OEL for substances sus pected of having reproductive toxicity but without inhalatory animal d ata on reproductive toxicity and without a MAC.