Frequency and occurrence of LD50 values for materials in the workplace

The main routes of occupational exposure for chemicals encountered in occupational environments are by skin contact and by inhalation. Acute toxicity data were collected for all chemicals with Australian Exposure Standards. For the 582 chemical entities, data were available as follows: oral toxicity (364, 63%), dermal toxicity (154, 26%) and inhalational toxicity (171, 29%). No acute toxicity data were available for 177 of these chemicals (177, 30%). Chemicals with data for more than one acute toxicity test were limited to: oral/dermal (151, 26%), oral inhalation (131, 23%), dermal/inhalation (73, 13%) and oral/dermal/inhalation (70, 12%). Analysis of subsets of groups of chemicals indicated that toxicity data were available for many pesticides and organic chemicals, but not for inorganic chemicals. The lack of acute inhalational and dermal toxicity data for chemicals used extensively enough to warrant exposure standards is at variance with the amount of toxicity information for other categories of chemicals (e.g. agricultural chemicals, therapeutic substances and food additives). This may also indicate scant regard given to toxicological information in the exposure standard setting process.