At present EXPO covers mostly the eastern part of Norway as far as air samples are concerned, while biological samples to monitor the work environment come from all over the country. Institutional cont EXPO is run by the National Institute of Occupational Health in Oslo which is a governmental research institute active in the fields of occupational medicine, hygiene, physiology and toxicology. Collaboration with the Labour Inspectorate is extensive. The institute is used as a regional laboratory, and receives work environment samples from Norwegian companies for chemical analysis. In addition the database can be used to reveal new hazards and to evaluate the use of compounds whenever new toxicological evidence becomes available.
EXPO also satisfies the demands placed on a system for laboratory administration.
Except for the National Institute of Occupational Health in Oslo, EXPO is most frequently used by the Labour Inspectorate, but it is also intended to be of use to others who need information on exposure data like researchers, health professionals, employers and policy makers. The Labour Inspectorate had contemplated such a database for several years. In addition to the National Institute of Occupational Health in Oslo, there are three regional laboratories belonging to the Labour Inspectorate. Annually 30.000 concentration values for compounds in work environments are reported by the regional laboratories. These values are the analytical results of about 10.000 samples and are used to evaluate health hazards to workers.