ConsExpo is used within and outside Europe by governments, institutes and industries to assess the exposure to chemical substances from everyday consumer products. ConsExpo can be used for the safety assessment of industrial chemicals (REACH) and biocides.

ConsExpo

ConsExpo development started in the early nineties, on request of the Dutch Ministry of Welfare, Health and Sports and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. A tool was needed which could be used to calculate quickly and reliably the exposure of the consumer to substances in all consumer products. This would lead to a more harmonized and standardized consumer exposure assessment. This resulted in the first ConsExpo tool (version 4.1) in 2005. ConsExpo assesses the exposure via inhalation, via the skin or by oral intake. Users choose the most appropriate scenario and fill in exposure parameters such as body weight and exposure duration. The program consists of both screening models and higher tier models for an exposure estimation.

Information about circumstances under which consumers are exposed to chemical substances from consumer products is available in so-called fact sheets. For several product categories so-called default parameter values are provided which can be used as a basis for the calculations in ConsExpo Web. These default values are also available in the database that is coupled to ConsExpo Web. By means of the fact sheets, the exposure assessment may be carried out in a transparent and standardised way.

ConsExpo Web

In October 2016, ConsExpo Web was launched (www.consexpoweb.nl). ConsExpo Web contains the functionalities of ConsExpo 4.1 and the emission tool. The update of ConsExpo Web is realised by RIVM in collaboration with the counterpart institutes ANSES (France), BfR (Germany), FOPH (Switzerland) and Health Canada. These institutes will continue to work on the further development of the instrument.

In the future, ConsExpo Web can easily be expanded with new applications, such as for example an exposure assessment for short term exposure. Also, the content of the fact sheets will be updated. A log of the changes made in ConsExpo Web since the release of ConsExpo Web version 1.0 in October 2016 is available under the ConsExpo Web section 

Other models of consumer exposure to chemical substances

The RIVM has developed in addition to ConsExpo the following models: ConsExpo Nano, the Probabilistic Aggregate Consumer Exposure Model (PACEM) and DustEx. More information on consumer exposure to chemical substances in general and these other exposure models can be found in the topic page consumer exposure to chemical substances.

Questions

If you have questions or suggestions for the improvement of ConsExpo, please contact us at consexpo@rivm.nl.
Professionals who would like to stay informed of the developments on ConsExpo can join the dedicated LinkedIn community ‘Consumer Exposure and ConsExpo'