The European Commission and ECHA have signed an agreement for the Agency to provide recommendations on a regular basis for occupational exposure limits (OELs) that protect workers exposed to hazardous chemicals. The agreement requires ECHA to assess four to five OELs per year from 2020 onwards. The program will start right away.

ECHA’s Secretariat will make proposals for ECHA’s Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) to review and adopt scientific opinions. These opinions will be forwarded to the European Commission for decision making. ECHA ran a pilot project between 2017 and 2018 which delivered five OEL recommendations within one year. These are currently passing through the decision-making process of the Commission.

• European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), Helsinki. Finland