Contacts with International Committees
The chairperson and a further member of the commission are members of the EU Commission's Scientific Committee for Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) . Members of the Working Groups on the Derivation of MAK Values and on the Derivation of Threshold Values in Biological Materials, and the Commission's Scientific Office, thus make regular statements on the threshold values proposed by the SCOEL and participate intensively in the discussions on the basis of their own research and findings.
Experience has shown that the earliest possible commentating of the threshold values proposed by the SCOEL is very constructive and leads to harmonisation with the commission's proposals. Furthermore, the more recent MAK documentations, particularly their English translations, are frequently used as the basis for the work by the SCOEL.
From 1 July 2000 to 31 March 2005, one of the members of the Commission's Scientific Office was seconded to the EU Directorate-General "Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities" as a national expert. This led to a closer cooperation between the commission and the SCOEL, as well as to a more intensive exchange of information. Furthermore, the methods used to derive and classify MAK values were disclosed to the committees of the European Commission, which are responsible for the evaluation of chemicals.
The Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Safety of the Gezondheidsraad (Health Council) of the Netherlands is concerned with the evaluation of occupational substances in the Netherlands. One member of the Scientific Secretariat of the Dutch Gezondheidsraad is a guest member of the Working Group on the Derivation of MAK Values, which guarantees a continual exchange of information. Furthermore, there are agreements on the mutual use of documentation on the substances. This avoids duplication of the work and allows faster processing of these substances.
An exchange of information has been maintained for many years with the Chemical Substances TLV (Threshold Limit Values) Committee of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) which also includes regular mutual participation at meetings. The various working groups and the scientific offices are in close contact and they exchange work programmes, information and discussion materials, as well as meeting documentation, to speed up substance evaluations and to avoid duplicating the work.
Furthermore, there is collaboration with the Occupational Health Standard Committee of China. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Yang Lei, Director of the Department of Occupational Health of the Tongji Medical University Wuhan, the List of MAK and BAT Values, as well as the toxicological-occupational health documentations of the MAK values, are currently being translated into Chinese with the assistance of the DFG. In doing so, the German side is making significant and effective contributions to the improvement of workplace safety in China. A joint symposium on setting threshold values and the classification of chemicals at the workplace is also planned.
