Nenad Savic - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Nenad Savic

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021

Milk allergy is among the most common food-related allergies. Milk-based products are recognized ... more Milk allergy is among the most common food-related allergies. Milk-based products are recognized as plant protection products (PPPs) in several countries as alternatives to synthetic pesticides. The potential health risk for allergic workers, as well as the general population, is yet to be assessed. An investigation was conducted in the Vaud Canton of Switzerland, where milk-based products are sprayed by helicopter over vineyards. Air lactose concentration was measured at 14 locations via 25 mm IOM Multidust samplers. Residual lactose concentration was measured on the surface of leaves over 7 days following spraying. Surface contamination downwind from the treated area was estimated through computer-based modeling using AgDRIFT® software. The average milk protein concentration inside and outside the vineyard was 0.47 and 0.16 µg/m3, respectively. Milk residues persisted on the leaf surface for an average of three days. Modelling results revealed an estimated order of magnitude of 0....

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2019

Within the framework of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of CHemicals (RE... more Within the framework of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of CHemicals (REACH), occupational exposure models are often used to predict the levels of exposure at a workplace. Poor inter-assessor agreement with their use poses a concern that may lead to different and dangerous risk conclusions. TREXMO (v1, 2016), a web tool providing parameter translations between six exposure models under REACH, is expected to improve the inter-assessor agreement. In this study, 18 assessors performed exposure assessment for six exposure situations within and outside the framework of this translation tool. In more than half of the evaluated cases, the results showed better agreement between assessors selecting the exposure parameters within the framework of TREXMO than when manually coding. The most affected were the parameters related to activity (such as “handling types” of Stoffenmanager) and exposure control (such as local controls). Furthermore, the agreement between the e...

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2016

Occupational exposure models vary significantly in their complexity, purpose, and the level of ex... more Occupational exposure models vary significantly in their complexity, purpose, and the level of expertise required from the user. Different parameters in the same model may lead to different exposure estimates for the same exposure situation. This paper presents a tool developed to deal with this concern-TREXMO or TRanslation of EXposure MOdels. TREXMO integrates six commonly used occupational exposure models, namely, ART v.1.5, STOFFENMANAGER® v.5.1, ECETOC TRA v.3, MEASE v.1.02.01, EMKG-EXPO-TOOL, and EASE v.2.0. By enabling a semi-automatic translation between the parameters of these six models, TREXMO facilitates their simultaneous use. For a given exposure situation, defined by a set of parameters in one of the models, TREXMO provides the user with the most appropriate parameters to use in the other exposure models. Results showed that, once an exposure situation and parameters were set in ART, TREXMO reduced the number of possible outcomes in the other models by 1-4 orders of magnitude. The tool should manage to reduce the uncertain entry or selection of parameters in the six models, improve between-user reliability, and reduce the time required for running several models for a given exposure situation. In addition to these advantages, registrants of chemicals and authorities should benefit from more reliable exposure estimates for the risk characterization of dangerous chemicals under Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH). KEY WOR DS : Advanced REACH Tool (ART); between-user reliability; ECETOC TRA; occupational exposure models; STOFFENMANAGER® IN TROD UCTION Occupational exposure models are an indispensable part of scientifically sound evaluations of human exposure to chemicals. Since the Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) legislation entered into force in 2007, exposure models have been widely used to perform chemical safety assessments and establish exposure scenarios for dangerous substances (ECHA, 2012a). There are several models available with which

ArXiv, 2020

Objective. Epidemiological studies require data that are in alignment with the classifications es... more Objective. Epidemiological studies require data that are in alignment with the classifications established for occupations or economic activities. The classifications usually include hundreds of codes and titles. Manual coding of raw data may result in misclassification and be time consuming. The goal was to develop and test a web-tool, named Procode, for coding of free-texts against classifications and recoding between different classifications. Methods. Three text classifiers, i.e. Complement Naive Bayes (CNB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest Classifier (RFC), were investigated using a k-fold cross-validation. 30 000 free-texts with manually assigned classification codes of French classification of occupations (PCS) and French classification of activities (NAF) were available. For recoding, Procode integrated a workflow that converts codes of one classification to another according to existing crosswalks. Since this is a straightforward operation, only the recoding ...

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

The Advanced REACH Tool (ART) is the most sophisticated tool used for evaluating exposure levels ... more The Advanced REACH Tool (ART) is the most sophisticated tool used for evaluating exposure levels under the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) regulations. ART provides estimates at different percentiles of exposure and within different confidence intervals (CIs). However, its performance has only been tested on a limited number of exposure data. The present study compares ART's estimates with exposure measurements collected over many years in Switzerland. Measurements from 584 cases of exposure to vapours, mists, powders, and abrasive dusts (wood/stone and metal) were extracted from a Swiss database. The corresponding exposures at the 50 th and 90 th percentiles were calculated in ART. To characterize the model's performance, the 90% CI of the estimates was considered. ART's performance at the 50 th percentile was only found to be insufficiently conservative with regard to exposure to wood/stone dusts, whereas the 90 th percentile showed sufficient conservatism for all the types of exposure processed. However, a trend was observed with the residuals, where ART overestimated lower exposures and underestimated higher ones. The median was more precise, however, and the majority (≥60%) of real-world measurements were within a factor of 10 from ART's estimates. We provide recommendations based on the results and suggest further, more comprehensive, investigations.

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

Several occupational exposure models are recommended under the EU's REACH legislation. Due to lim... more Several occupational exposure models are recommended under the EU's REACH legislation. Due to limited availability of high-quality exposure data, their validation is an ongoing process. It was shown, however, that different models may calculate significantly different estimates and thus lead to potentially dangerous conclusions about chemical risk. In this paper, the betweenmodel translation rules defined in TREXMO were used to generate 319,000 different in silico exposure situations in ART, Stoffenmanager and ECETOC TRA v3. The three models' estimates were computed and the correlation and consistency between them were investigated. The best correlated pair was Stoffenmanager-ART (R 2 , 0.27-0.81), whereas the ART-TRA and Stoffenmanager-TRA correlations were either lower (R 2 , 0.13-0.47) or no correlation was found. Consistency varied significantly according to different exposure types (e.g. vapour vs dust) or settings (near-field vs far-field and indoors vs outdoors). The percentages of generated situations for which estimates differed by more than a factor of 100 ranged from 14-97%, 37-99% and 1-68% for Stoffenmanager-ART, TRA-ART and TRA-Stoffenmanager, respectively. Overall, the models were more consistent for vapours than for dusts and solids, near-fields than for far-fields, and indoor than for outdoor exposure. Multiple linear regression revealed how different exposure parameters influenced the models' consistency. The findings emphasize the need for a multiple-model approach to assessing critical exposure scenarios under REACH. They also provide guidance to users wishing to select the right model(s) for assessing a wide range of exposure situations and model developers seeking future improvements. This study used the SM algorithm published in Schinkel et al. (2009). However, the model's online platform has been updated to version 6. Since its newer versions have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the present study's authors cannot guarantee the same results with Stoffenmanager's potentially updated algorithm. Conclusion and Recommendations This study investigated the correlation and degree of consistency between three occupational exposure models often used and studied in the framework of REACH. We showed that for the same ES, the models could compute significantly different exposure estimates, which could lead

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021

Milk allergy is among the most common food-related allergies. Milk-based products are recognized ... more Milk allergy is among the most common food-related allergies. Milk-based products are recognized as plant protection products (PPPs) in several countries as alternatives to synthetic pesticides. The potential health risk for allergic workers, as well as the general population, is yet to be assessed. An investigation was conducted in the Vaud Canton of Switzerland, where milk-based products are sprayed by helicopter over vineyards. Air lactose concentration was measured at 14 locations via 25 mm IOM Multidust samplers. Residual lactose concentration was measured on the surface of leaves over 7 days following spraying. Surface contamination downwind from the treated area was estimated through computer-based modeling using AgDRIFT® software. The average milk protein concentration inside and outside the vineyard was 0.47 and 0.16 µg/m3, respectively. Milk residues persisted on the leaf surface for an average of three days. Modelling results revealed an estimated order of magnitude of 0....

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2019

Within the framework of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of CHemicals (RE... more Within the framework of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restriction of CHemicals (REACH), occupational exposure models are often used to predict the levels of exposure at a workplace. Poor inter-assessor agreement with their use poses a concern that may lead to different and dangerous risk conclusions. TREXMO (v1, 2016), a web tool providing parameter translations between six exposure models under REACH, is expected to improve the inter-assessor agreement. In this study, 18 assessors performed exposure assessment for six exposure situations within and outside the framework of this translation tool. In more than half of the evaluated cases, the results showed better agreement between assessors selecting the exposure parameters within the framework of TREXMO than when manually coding. The most affected were the parameters related to activity (such as “handling types” of Stoffenmanager) and exposure control (such as local controls). Furthermore, the agreement between the e...

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2016

Occupational exposure models vary significantly in their complexity, purpose, and the level of ex... more Occupational exposure models vary significantly in their complexity, purpose, and the level of expertise required from the user. Different parameters in the same model may lead to different exposure estimates for the same exposure situation. This paper presents a tool developed to deal with this concern-TREXMO or TRanslation of EXposure MOdels. TREXMO integrates six commonly used occupational exposure models, namely, ART v.1.5, STOFFENMANAGER® v.5.1, ECETOC TRA v.3, MEASE v.1.02.01, EMKG-EXPO-TOOL, and EASE v.2.0. By enabling a semi-automatic translation between the parameters of these six models, TREXMO facilitates their simultaneous use. For a given exposure situation, defined by a set of parameters in one of the models, TREXMO provides the user with the most appropriate parameters to use in the other exposure models. Results showed that, once an exposure situation and parameters were set in ART, TREXMO reduced the number of possible outcomes in the other models by 1-4 orders of magnitude. The tool should manage to reduce the uncertain entry or selection of parameters in the six models, improve between-user reliability, and reduce the time required for running several models for a given exposure situation. In addition to these advantages, registrants of chemicals and authorities should benefit from more reliable exposure estimates for the risk characterization of dangerous chemicals under Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH). KEY WOR DS : Advanced REACH Tool (ART); between-user reliability; ECETOC TRA; occupational exposure models; STOFFENMANAGER® IN TROD UCTION Occupational exposure models are an indispensable part of scientifically sound evaluations of human exposure to chemicals. Since the Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) legislation entered into force in 2007, exposure models have been widely used to perform chemical safety assessments and establish exposure scenarios for dangerous substances (ECHA, 2012a). There are several models available with which

ArXiv, 2020

Objective. Epidemiological studies require data that are in alignment with the classifications es... more Objective. Epidemiological studies require data that are in alignment with the classifications established for occupations or economic activities. The classifications usually include hundreds of codes and titles. Manual coding of raw data may result in misclassification and be time consuming. The goal was to develop and test a web-tool, named Procode, for coding of free-texts against classifications and recoding between different classifications. Methods. Three text classifiers, i.e. Complement Naive Bayes (CNB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest Classifier (RFC), were investigated using a k-fold cross-validation. 30 000 free-texts with manually assigned classification codes of French classification of occupations (PCS) and French classification of activities (NAF) were available. For recoding, Procode integrated a workflow that converts codes of one classification to another according to existing crosswalks. Since this is a straightforward operation, only the recoding ...

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

The Advanced REACH Tool (ART) is the most sophisticated tool used for evaluating exposure levels ... more The Advanced REACH Tool (ART) is the most sophisticated tool used for evaluating exposure levels under the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) regulations. ART provides estimates at different percentiles of exposure and within different confidence intervals (CIs). However, its performance has only been tested on a limited number of exposure data. The present study compares ART's estimates with exposure measurements collected over many years in Switzerland. Measurements from 584 cases of exposure to vapours, mists, powders, and abrasive dusts (wood/stone and metal) were extracted from a Swiss database. The corresponding exposures at the 50 th and 90 th percentiles were calculated in ART. To characterize the model's performance, the 90% CI of the estimates was considered. ART's performance at the 50 th percentile was only found to be insufficiently conservative with regard to exposure to wood/stone dusts, whereas the 90 th percentile showed sufficient conservatism for all the types of exposure processed. However, a trend was observed with the residuals, where ART overestimated lower exposures and underestimated higher ones. The median was more precise, however, and the majority (≥60%) of real-world measurements were within a factor of 10 from ART's estimates. We provide recommendations based on the results and suggest further, more comprehensive, investigations.

Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017

Several occupational exposure models are recommended under the EU's REACH legislation. Due to lim... more Several occupational exposure models are recommended under the EU's REACH legislation. Due to limited availability of high-quality exposure data, their validation is an ongoing process. It was shown, however, that different models may calculate significantly different estimates and thus lead to potentially dangerous conclusions about chemical risk. In this paper, the betweenmodel translation rules defined in TREXMO were used to generate 319,000 different in silico exposure situations in ART, Stoffenmanager and ECETOC TRA v3. The three models' estimates were computed and the correlation and consistency between them were investigated. The best correlated pair was Stoffenmanager-ART (R 2 , 0.27-0.81), whereas the ART-TRA and Stoffenmanager-TRA correlations were either lower (R 2 , 0.13-0.47) or no correlation was found. Consistency varied significantly according to different exposure types (e.g. vapour vs dust) or settings (near-field vs far-field and indoors vs outdoors). The percentages of generated situations for which estimates differed by more than a factor of 100 ranged from 14-97%, 37-99% and 1-68% for Stoffenmanager-ART, TRA-ART and TRA-Stoffenmanager, respectively. Overall, the models were more consistent for vapours than for dusts and solids, near-fields than for far-fields, and indoor than for outdoor exposure. Multiple linear regression revealed how different exposure parameters influenced the models' consistency. The findings emphasize the need for a multiple-model approach to assessing critical exposure scenarios under REACH. They also provide guidance to users wishing to select the right model(s) for assessing a wide range of exposure situations and model developers seeking future improvements. This study used the SM algorithm published in Schinkel et al. (2009). However, the model's online platform has been updated to version 6. Since its newer versions have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the present study's authors cannot guarantee the same results with Stoffenmanager's potentially updated algorithm. Conclusion and Recommendations This study investigated the correlation and degree of consistency between three occupational exposure models often used and studied in the framework of REACH. We showed that for the same ES, the models could compute significantly different exposure estimates, which could lead