Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abstract: Methods for assessing occupational exposure to toxic chemicals have been developed semi-independently by a number of standards organizations and regulatory authorities in Europe and beyond. Few of these have been systematically reviewed against Comité Europeán de Normalisation (CEN) criteria for accuracy and reliability. Some of these methods have been complied into indexes, either in hard copy or on the Internet, but existing indices are incomplete. There is a clear need for the harmonization and validation of these methods and for a full compendium of available methods and their validation status, while avoiding duplication of essentially equivalent procedures. Many of the methods are accessible on the Internet, so that in such instances the compendium need not contain full details of the methods themselves but can provide links to the pertinent web sites.