Nitrogen dioxide; health-based recommended occupational exposure limit

At the request of the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, the Health Council of the Netherlands recommends health-based occupational exposure limits for the concentration of toxic substances in air in the workplace. The recommendations are made by the Council’s Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Standards (DECOS). They constitute the first step in a three-step procedure that leads to legally binding limit values.

In this report, the committee discusses the consequences of occupational exposure to nitrogen dioxide and recommends a health-based occupational exposure limit (HBR-OEL). The committee’s conclusions are made on literature retrieved from the documents produced by the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits of the European Union (SCOEL; SCO93, SCO97) and on additional scientific papers and reviews that have been published prior to June 2002.