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OEL's in the Netherlands β
OEL's in the Netherlands
Starting Point: Private OEL's
Employers and employees are since 2007 even more responsible for dealing safely with substances in the workplace. This means that they must now together establish OEL's to prevent damage to the health of workers as a result of exposure to particular substances. The private or non-statutory OEL's are listed in DOHSBase Compare in the section non-legally binding Limit Values.
Public OELs or legally binding Limit Values
In addition to these private OEL's, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment sets public (i.e., statutory) OEL's for the following substances:
- Substances for which the EU requires limit values (in practice, these are Binding Limit Values and Indicative Limit Values).
- Substances for which it is not expected that the EU will require a limit. This group comprises substances 'without owners' and substances with a high chance of causing damage to health (high-risk substances), including those for which the government deems it necessary to establish a public limit.
The Working Conditions Decree ("Arbobesluit" in Dutch) regulates legal binding Limit Values for the following (groups of) substances:
- Chemicals (general) (Article 4.3.);
- Carcinogenic substances and processes and mutagenic substances (Art. 4.16).
The legal binding Limit Values are listed in Appendix XIII of the Working Conditions Regulations ("Arbeidsomstandighedenregeling" in Dutch). Appendix XIIIA covers non-carcinogens, and Appendix XIIIB carcinogens. The first list of legal binding Limit Values was published in the Government Gazette ("Staatscourant" in Dutch) of 28 December 2006, no. 252 (Appendices XIIIA and XIIIB of the new, revised Working Conditions Regulations).
The Dutch list of legal binding Limit Values consists of:
- Limit based on the European BLV's and IOELV's. If the IOELV equals the health-based value from SCOEL/SEG, this is shown in the field 'Basis' and the report can be consulted via the paperclip. Incidentally health-based values are lacking for some BLV's or IOELV's.
- Limits set by the Dutch three-stage procedure.
- Limit values adopted from other countries or organisations.
Health-based OEL's
In principle, all OEL's within the Dutch system (i.e., both private and legal OEL's) are health-based OEL's, with the exception of OEL's for carcinogenic and mutagenic substances and inhalable allergenics, for which no safe health-based OEL can be established. These substances will continue to be subject to feasibility tests and the results of the tests will play an important role in establishing OEL levels.
Three-stage procedure
The Dutch three-stage procedure is applied since 2007 of substances without a threshold dose (f.i. cancer-causing) and for inhalant allergens. The starting point is the health-based advice from the Dutch Health Council. If the underlying health-based advisory reports (usually the WGD/DECOS report) is adopted 1 on 1, the report can be consulted via the paperclip in the field 'Basis' as (pdf document). Otherwise the health-based advisory value and report are presented a separate record.
The State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment sets legal limit values for special chemical substances. This is done as follows:
οΏ½ The Dutch Expert Commission on Substances (DECOS) of the Health Council recommends the State Secretary of Social Affairs and Employment on the risk levels of a substance in the workplace.
οΏ½ The OEL Subcommittee of the Social and Economic Council reviews the DECOS report on the technical and economic feasibility, and adopt the health-based advisory value or advise the Ministers of Social Affairs to use a different value.
οΏ½ The State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment then finalize the legal limit value.
Since 2007 the second stage, the socio-economic feasibility test was stopped for the European BLV's and IOELV's (BLV = Binding Limit Value; IOELV = Indicative Occupational Exposure Limit Value).