News

As part of the research project F2437 on behalf of BAuA (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) FoBiG is currently analysing existing methods for deriving occupational limit values (OELs) and develops proposals for updates and harmonisation. With the now published “Synthesis report” all discussion papers are now available at BAuA’s website.

As part of a research project on behalf of BAuA (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) FoBiG is currently analysing existing methods for deriving occupational limit values (OELs) and develops proposals for updates and harmonisation. Further project reports are now available at BAuA’s website. These reports deal with the extrapolation steps
• Time extrapolation
• Interspecies extrapolation
• Intraspecies extrapolation
We analyse these steps and derive distributions based on newly created databases. In a further report we discuss the methodology to calculate so-called “Human Equivalent Concentrations” (HEC) for interspecies extrapolation in the lower respiratory tract in case of particle exposure.

If you have any questions, please contact Klaus Schneider.

Since 17 September 2020, EFSA's final risk assessment on the four most important PFAS in food in terms of quantity has been available. The group TWI (tolerable weekly intake) for all four substances (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS)) of 4.4 ng/kg bw per week was derived based on the impairment of the immune response as the most sensitive endpoint. This new risk assessment makes it necessary to revise the guidance values or health orientation values (GOW) for PFAS in drinking water. The draft European Drinking Water Directive also provides for a regulation of PFAS in drinking water. In a recommendation, the Federal Environment Agency has already pointed out the resulting challenges for analytical laboratories.

For further information please contact Ulrike Schuhmacher-Wolz.

Following respective recommendations by ECHA the European Commission included 11 further substances into REACH Annex XIV, among them several borate compounds and UV stabilisers (benzotriazole derivatives (Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/171 of 6 February 2020). With the Annex XIV listing these substances will not be allowed to be used in the future unless an application for authorisation for specific uses is submitted. For several substances, short dates for submitting authorisations were set (end of 2021).

Name                                                                                                       EC #                                 CAS #
1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, dihexyl ester, branched and linear      271-093-5                         68515-50-4

Dihexyl phthalate                                                                                 201-559-5                         84-75-3

1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, di-C6-10-alkyl esters                            -                                        -
or mixed decyl and hexyl and octyl diesters
with ≥ 0.3% of dihexyl phthalate (EC No. 201-559-5)    

Trixylyl phosphate                                                                               246-677-8                          25155-23-1

Sodium perborate, perboric acid, sodium salt                                      -                                         -
Perboric acid, sodium salt
EC No.: 234-390-0 | CAS No.: 11138-47-9
Sodium perborate EC No.: 239-172-9 | CAS No.: 15120-21-5   

Sodium peroxometaborate                                                                  231-556-4                           7632-04-4

5-sec-butyl-2-(2,4-dimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)-5-methyl-                   -                                          -
1,3-dioxane [1], 5-sec-butyl-2-(4,6-dimethylcyclohex-3-en-1-yl)-
5-methyl-1,3-dioxane [2]
covering any of the individual stereoisomers of [1] and [2] or
any combination thereof       

2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-ditertpentylphenol (UV-328)                   247-384-8                           25973-55-1

2,4-di-tert-butyl-6-(5-chlorobenzotriazol-2-yl)phenol (UV-327)            223-383-8                          3864-99-1

2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-(tert-butyl)-6-(sec-butyl)phenol (UV-350)   253-037-1                          36437-37-3

2-benzotriazol-2-yl-4,6-di-tert-butylphenol (UV-320)                           223-346-6                           3846-71-7

For questions regarding REACH authorisation please contact Klaus Schneider.

On July 1, 2020 Klaus Schneider handed over the office of FoBiG managing director to Jan Oltmanns. We would like to deeply thank Klaus Schneider for more than 8 years of excellent leadership and are pleased that he will continue to work energetically for FoBiG! Jan Oltmanns has worked as a scientist for FoBiG for more than 30 years– 11 of which as partner. The carefully prepared handover within the company gives reason to hope for many more years of good management at FoBiG.
 

Due to the current corona situation, we work from home in large parts. Therefore, we are not continously available by phone in the office. Please mail us if you would like to contact us. We will then reply immediately by telephone or in writing.

FoBiG is pleased to announce the start of our collaboration with the members of the Hydrocarbon Solvents Producers Association (HSPA). We are looking forward to support HSPA in the dossier preparation for certain hydrocarbon solvents used in printing inks (or other mixtures) in food contact materials (FCM). Currently there is no respective European legislation. The application is intended for submission to the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) for inclusion of respective substances in a recommendation list (which is not legally binding).

For further information on FCM please contact Karin Heine.

FoBiG, together with Öko-Institut and Risk & Policy Analysts (RPA), supported the Directorate General for the Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission in developing indicators to monitor environmental and health benefits of the EU chemicals legislation. While developing such indicators encounters several problems, the recently published report of this project provides in-depth analyses of several possible indicators and concludes for each of them whether they should be pursued in the future, may have some potential in the future or should not be considered further. Among other topics, FoBiG contributed a concept to this report that allows analysing measured data with respect to their suitability to be used for indicators development.

For further information please contact Jan Oltmanns.

Rubber granules manufactured from end-of-life tyres are used as in-fill material for sports fields. In a project on initiative of the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturer‘s Association (ETRMA), and the Crumb Rubber Industry Platform (CRIP) FoBiG, together with partners Eurofins and Labosport, evaluated human health risks from this use. The results were published as three sequential papers in the scientific journal „Science of the Total Environment“ and are publicly available as „open access“.

ERASSTRI - European Risk Assessment Study on Synthetic Turf Rubber Infill – Part 1: Analysis of infill samples
ERASSTRI - European Risk Assessment Study on Synthetic Turf Rubber Infill – Part 2: Migration and monitoring studies
ERASSTRI - European Risk Assessment Study on Synthetic Turf Rubber Infill – Part 3: Exposure and risk characterisation

For further information please contact Klaus Schneider.

Allergic skin diseases due to occupational exposure to sensitizing agents represent a major problem in preventive occupational safety. This also applies to epoxy resin systems known for their outstanding technical properties. Several projects have already dealt with the sensitizing effect of the ingredients contained in these systems. As a technical innovation in the systems, so-called prepolymers are increasingly being used. The present project is intended to make statements on the sensitizing potency in comparison to the monomeric components on the basis of in vitro tests. The project is funded by the DGUV (FP-0451). The testing of further ingredients is supported by the members of the working group Epoxy Resin Ingredients in terms of content and financial support. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Your contact for further information at FoBiG is Karin Heine.

A new textbook “The Practice of Consumer Exposure Assessment” by editors Gerhard Heinemeyer, Matti Jantunen, and Pertti Hakkinen has been published now in Springer, with a contribution by Klaus Schneider. This book provides a very comprehensive and detailed overview on approaches and the practice of assessing consumer exposure from food, environmental media and consumer products.
 

As part of a research project on behalf of BAuA (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) FoBiG is currently analysing existing methods for deriving occupational limit values (OELs) and develops proposals for updates and harmonisation. The first project reports dealing with
• Comparison of methods for deriving OELs
• Dose-response modelling
• Probabilistic hazard assessment
• Route-to-route extrapolation
are now available at BAuA’s website.

If you have any questions, please contact Klaus Schneider.