DOHSBase in the Literature

Summary: DOHSBase has been consistently cited in Dutch occupational hygiene literature since its first publication in 2005. TNO names the database in its 2013 report Bedrijfsgrenswaarden as one of the standard sources for kick-off values. The Arbokennisnet knowledge dossiers use DOHSBase Compare as the authoritative source for tables of vapour pressures, limit values, RAS scores and hazard ratios. The sector-specific Arbocatalogus Carrosserie Schadeherstel (2021, authored by Geert Wieling) applies the full DOHSBase methodology to a concrete working process. This page collects the principal external publications that use DOHSBase as a source or as a working method, with direct links to the original documents.

When you need to justify a limit value or a kick-off value to a colleague or an inspector, it is not enough to know that the source exists — you need to know that the source is recognised. This page collects the external publications where DOHSBase is used as an authoritative source or as a working method, from scientific TNO reports to knowledge dossiers and sector arbocatalogi.

RIVM: Peer review AWARE (2009)

Quote: “DOHSBase can be used for ranking of chemical substances, not products, for prioritisation in terms of risk management. In DOHSBase, several hazard banding systems have been included (amongst others COSHH Essentials, TRGS 440) and it is up to the user to select one.” — Muller et al., RIVM report 320023001, 2009

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published a peer review of the AWARE project (a Dutch methodology for deriving company limit values) in 2009 as report 320023001. The report (57 pp.) places DOHSBase in its methodological framework and dedicates a separate section to evaluating DOHSBase as a hazard-banding tool.

RIVM describes DOHSBase as a tool for ranking pure chemical substances based on multiple hazard-banding systems — including COSHH Essentials and TRGS 440 — with the user choosing which system to apply. The reference list of the report specifically cites the DOHSBase article from the 2006 NVvA Newsletter and uses the DOHSBase Compare comparison as a reference for describing the TIX index. This is one of the earliest documented external evaluations of DOHSBase by a national research institute.

Full text: www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/320023001.pdf

TNO: Final report on company limit values (2013)

Quote: “Another option is to apply a more pragmatic approach, such as the kick-off limit value method in DOHSBASE. Once a limit value is known, exposure models such as Stoffenmanager are available to produce an exposure estimate.” — Terwoert et al., TNO 2013, p.35 (translated)

The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) published the research report Bedrijfsgrenswaarden — Inventarisatie van het gebruik en behoeften aan ondersteuning bij het vaststellen en gebruiken van bedrijfsgrenswaarden in 2013 (Terwoert et al., TNO report R10318, 121 pp.). The report maps how Dutch companies set company limit values when no statutory limit is available, and what support they need to do so.

DOHSBase is named in five passages as one of the standard sources companies consult to derive a company limit value — alongside the SER database, the German GESTIS, the Safety Data Sheet, and DNELs from extended Safety Data Sheets. For the kick-off limit-value method the report links directly to <dohsbase.nl>.

Full text: publications.tno.nl/publication/100656/bPjFuo/terwoert-2013-bedrijfsgrenswaarden.pdf

Arbokennisnet: knowledge dossier Volatile Organic Compounds

Arbokennisnet is the Dutch knowledge collection for occupational health and safety, composed of expert-authored knowledge dossiers. The dossier Vluchtige Organische Stoffen (Volatile Organic Compounds, 40 pp., Dutch) uses DOHSBase Compare as the primary source for several tables of VOC properties and computes RAS scores and hazard ratios from DOHSBase data.

The dossier explicitly places DOHSBase in the category of “paid data collections” alongside Chemiekaartenboek and EaSI-Pro as one of the recognised professional sources for occupational hygienists, and cites DOHSBase alongside GESTIS and the Dutch Standards Institute as a source for measurement methods. For the Risk Assessment Score (RAS), the dossier explicitly cites the DOHSBase concept (Wieling, 2006).

Local copy: arbokennisnet-vluchtige-organische-stoffen-2009.pdf

Arbocatalogus Carrosserie Schadeherstel (2021)

The sector-specific Arbocatalogus Carrosserie Schadeherstel — Safe Working Method for Collision Repair, Method Description (2021, 20 pp., Dutch) was written by Geert Wieling (GW Arbo Advies, co-founder of DOHSBase) and describes how an employer in the automotive collision-repair sector should assess exposure to hazardous substances.

The method description applies the full DOHSBase Compare methodology: for each task, the components of the products used are collected (without relying solely on the Safety Data Sheet), the physicochemical properties of each component — vapour pressure, limit value, molecular mass, H-statements — are pulled from DOHSBase Compare, and the exposure assessment is calculated from those. For substances without a formal limit value, the catalogue explicitly refers to the kick-off values method (Scheffers & Wieling, 2005; Wieling, 2014).

This document is a rare example of a sector arbocatalogus that does not merely cite the DOHSBase methodology but prescribes it as the standard working method. It is therefore concrete evidence that the methodology is reproducible and defensible in day-to-day practice.

Local copy: arbocatalogus-carrosserie-schadeherstel-2021.pdf

International presentations: BOHS Nottingham & AIHCe 2014

In 2014, Theo Scheffers and Geert Wieling presented the DOHSBase methodology on three international stages — twice at AIHCe in the US and once via the British Occupational Hygiene Society:

BOHS Annual Conference, Nottingham (May 2014). Scheffers and Wieling expanded their conference talk into an article in BOHS Exposure Magazine (June 2014, issue 3, pp. 12–13) under the title “Careful with that DNEL, Occupational Hygienist!”. The article discusses the systematic differences between DNELs (derived through a standardised process with fixed safety factors) and health-based OELVs (derived through a holistic, observational approach by bodies such as SCOEL, the German DFG or the Dutch Health Council), and warns occupational hygienists against the uncritical adoption of DNELs as workplace exposure limits. The article was added to the Gestis-DNEL collection of the German DGUV-IFA (Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) in July 2014 and is still hosted there. BOHS Exposure Magazine is the publication of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, the oldest occupational-hygiene professional society in the world (founded 1953).

AIHCe 2014 — Ignite session: DNEL versus OELV. At AIHCe 2014, Theo gave an Ignite session presenting the same DNEL/OELV comparison as a fast, conceptual introduction for the North American audience. AIHCe is the annual conference of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the largest occupational hygiene venue in North America.

AIHCe 2014 — Poster PO136: Kick-off limits for substances with no OELV/DNEL. At the same AIHCe, Scheffers and Wieling presented a poster (PO136) specifically on the kick-off values methodology: how GHS/CLP classification is used to derive exposure benchmarks for substances with no available OELV or DNEL. The poster compares the US and European limit-value landscapes (PEL vs BLV/IOLV, ACGIH vs SCOEL/DFG, WEEL vs AGS, and the uniquely European REACH DNEL category) and positions kick-off values as the pragmatic floor for the gap these systems do not cover.

Taken together, these three contributions mark 2014 as the year DOHSBase first presented its national methodology broadly on the international stage — on the two largest occupational hygiene venues in the world.

Local copies:

• scheffers-wieling-2014-careful-with-that-dnel.pdf — BOHS Exposure Magazine, June 2014
• Ignite_session.TheoScheffers.AIHCe2014.DNELvsOELV.pdf — AIHCe 2014 Ignite session
• scheffers-aihce-2014-kick-off-legal-issues.pdf — AIHCe 2014 Poster PO136

NVvA brochure 1992: DOHS-Base

The earliest surviving primary source about DOHSBase is the 1992 NVvA brochure — the launch brochure of the very first version of DOHS-Base, then still spelled with a space and a hyphen. The brochure documents the handover of the first copy on 13 February 1992 by NVvA chairman Mr. Boers to Ms. Mulock Houwer, Director-General for Labour at the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs, with quotations from Normalisatie Magazine and a photo of the moment itself. Scope of the first release: 1,000+ occupational exposure limits and measurement methods, on 3.5" or 5.25" MS-DOS diskette.

The document matters as a historical anchor: it dates the founding of DOHSBase to a specific day (13 February 1992), explicitly places the project in the context of the European Framework Directive 89/391/EEC, and shows that the three-way search setup (name / CAS / EINECS) that is still a core feature of DOHSBase Online today was already present in the very first version.

Local copy: nvva-dohsbase-brochure-1992.pdf

See the KB article on the history of DOHSBase for a detailed discussion of the 1992 source.

NVvA Newsletter 2006-01: DOHSBase — Comparing substances

The earliest public overview of the DOHSBase methodology appeared in the NVvA Newsletter of April 2006 (4 pp., Dutch). The article introduces the Compare mode of DOHSBase2000, the TOX index (hazard from R-phrases), the TIX index (threshold exceedance index — ratio of saturation concentration to limit value), and the RAS score (TOX × TIX). These indices still form the calculation core of DOHSBase Compare in 2026.

Local copy: nvva-nieuwsbrief-2006-01-dohsbase-vergelijk.pdf

See also the KB article on the history of the limit-value hierarchy for a more detailed overview of how the 2005–2006 methodology was adopted by the Dutch Social and Economic Council in 2007 as part of the national limit-value decision scheme.

Peer-reviewed scientific literature

Beyond the national knowledge documents above, the DOHSBase methodology is also the subject of peer-reviewed scientific publications:

• Scheffers, T., Doornaert, B., Berne, N., van Breukelen, G., Leplay, A., & van Miert, E. (2016). On the Strength and Validity of Hazard Banding. Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 60(9), 1049–1061. This study — with Theo Scheffers as first author, together with co-authors from industrial and academic occupational hygiene — validates the statistical foundation of the kick-off hazard banding methodology and is itself a key citation source within DOHSBase. ResearchGate
• Scheffers, T. & Wieling, G. (2005). “Kick-off” grenswaarden voor stoffen zonder grenswaarden. Tijdschrift voor toegepaste Arbowetenschap, no. 3, 67–75. The original publication in which the methodology was proposed.

Suggest a publication

Do you know a Dutch or international publication, arbocatalogus or knowledge document that cites DOHSBase or applies the DOHSBase methodology and is missing from this overview? Let us know via info@dohsbase.nl — we are happy to extend this list with real-world applications.