Human Exposure Assessments

Humans are exposed to many pollutants and substances knowingly and unknowingly on a day-to-day basis. Some of these can be deadly or cause ill health. To mitigate health impacts an exposure assessment is needed to understand the likelihood of adverse effects.

Human exposure assessments determine what is acceptable and what has human health consequences. Our scientists cover both occupational and non-occupational environments, including exposure in the workplace, home and wider environment. Routes of exposures include inhalation, dermal, and (inadvertent) ingestion exposure.

Our scientists have developed the assessment of dermal exposure, leading to the articulation of new principles of exposure assessment, the development of predictive exposure models, and investigations into dermal exposure under specific working conditions.

The work has a multidisciplinary approach with projects across the organisation and we collaborate with scientists in other organisations in the UK, Europe, and elsewhere around the world.

What our scientists do:

Our scientists played a key role in defining the internationally agreed size fractions of dust relevant to human lung disease, i.e. inhalable, thoracic, and respirable. New methods of laboratory analysis of the mineral content of coal dust also helped clarify the role of quartz and other components.

Our exposure scientists participate on various external scientific committees e.g. BSI, CEN, and ISO standards committees, expert working groups (e.g. WHO, OECD) as well as scientific advisory groups.