title: Development of acute exposure guideline levels for airborne exposures to hazardous substances.
abstract: Hazardous substances can be released into the atmosphere due to industrial and transportation accidents, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and terrorists, thereby exposing workers and the nearby public to potential adverse health effects. Various enforceable guidelines have been set by regulatory agencies for worker and ambient air quality. However, these exposure levels generally are not applicable to rare lifetime acute exposures, which possibly could occur at high concentrations. Acute exposure guideline levels (AEGLs) provide estimates of concentrations for airborne exposures for an array of short durations that possibly could cause mild (AEGL-1), severe, irreversible, potentially disabling adverse health effects (AEGL-2), or life threatening effects (AEGL-3). These levels can be useful for emergency responders and planners in reducing or eliminating potential risks to the public. Procedures and methodologies for deriving AEGLs are reviewed in this paper that have been developed in the United States, with direct input from international representatives of OECD member-countries, by the National Advisory Committee for Acute Exposure Guidelines for Hazardous Substances and reviewed by the National Research Council. Techniques are discussed for the extrapolation of effects across different exposure durations. AEGLs provide a viable approach for assisting in the prevention, planning, and response to acute airborne exposures to toxic agents.
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont., Canada. dkrewski@uottawa.ca
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krewski
authors.forename: Kulbir
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bakshi
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garrett
authors.forename: Ernest
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Falke
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rusch
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gaylor
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000592:standards / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D019985:Benchmarking; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000592:standards*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000592:standards / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D015386:Hazardous Substances