OECD activities of Working Party on Exposure Assessment – WPEA

Italian experts:
Lionello Attias, Raffaella Cresti, Istituto Superiore di Sanità

The Working Party on Exposure Assessment (hereafter the “WPEA”) assists the Chemicals and Biotechnology Committee (hereafter the “Committee”) in facilitating and supporting its work on the exposure assessment of chemicals and chemical products, focusing on sharing and developing exposure assessment-related information, methodologies and tools.

The WPEA activities aim to facilitate the sharing, development, dissemination and harmonization of information on exposure assessment (such as emission factors), methodologies and tools to be implemented (such as databases, guidance documents, harmonised templates and exposure models). Both information and tools are applied for the estimation of the impact due to the releases of chemicals during their life cycle on the environment and various populations including the general population, consumers, workers and children at various age groups.

The WPEA develops and updates OECD Emission Scenario Documents to be used for estimating the release of chemicals during their lifecycle.
The WPEA report on its activity to the Committee and advise the Committee regarding policy issues related to the work on exposure assessment. In the framework of the WPEA activities, different sub- groups may be established as to deal with particular issues.

Currently there are three sub-groups:

• children’s Health
• dermal Exposure
• occupational Biomonitoring

The WPEA works in collaboration with other bodies within the Committee; with international organization in the context of Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC); with Industry associations and non-governmental organisations.
The WPEA consists of delegates nominated by the OECD Member States and other participants who are responsible for the exposure assessment of chemicals and chemical products.