Occupational Exposure Limits

To OELs main page

Summary of information from EU Member States and other Sources

The following is a brief summary of the occupational exposure limit systems in Member States and some other countries. More information on the Member States can be found from the links given below, or through the Member State pages of the European Agency's site. It is strongly recommended that you check the relevant national legislation.

• EU Member States
• Non-Member States
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Estonia
  • Hong Kong
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Republic of South Africa
  • Switzerland
  • USA

Non-Member States

Australia

The Australian National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) sets OELs. The Commission consists of employee and employer organisations, trade unions, industry and government representatives. The Exposure Standards Expert Working Group (ESEWG) recommends OELs for individual substances.

A great number of the adopted exposure standards have been obtained from the ACGIH's (USA) list of threshold limit values. The National Commission has considered these values and those found to be acceptable were adopted. The Exposure Standards Working Group has reviewed a smaller number of substances in detail and appropriate values have been assigned.

The OELs are instruments of an advisory character, except where a law, other than the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission Act, or an instrument made under such a law, makes them mandatory. The application of any National Commission document in any particular State or Territory of Australia is the prerogative of that State or Territory.

More information on the Australian OSH regulations is available on the web site of the Australian and European Union Cooperation on Workplace Safety and Health

Internet Links
NOHSC information
http://www.nohsc.gov.au/OHSLegalObligations/NationalStandards/Expstd.htm
Australian and European Union Cooperation on Workplace Safety and Health
http://www.nohsc-eu.gov.au/

Back to top

Canada

Canadian autonomous regions have different OSH systems, which are applied according to the provincial regulations. The Provinces are also presented at the Canada - EU Co-operation site on Workplace Safety and Health

Internet Links
An explanation on the Canadian OSH system is at
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/legisl/intro.html
Canada - EU Co-operation site on Workplace Safety and Health
http://www.eu-ccohs.org/
Ontario Legislation
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/home_E.asp?lang=en

Québec

The Regulation of the Quality of the Workplace deals with OELs, its appendix A contains a list of contaminants. The Joint Committee of the Board of the Directors of the Commission for Occupational Health and Safety revises the OEL list. There are employer and trade union representatives. The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) consists of employer and labour representatives and experts advisers. In the list of OELs, all substances listed by the ACGIH (USA) are included. Types of OELs are TWA, STEL and Ceiling. There are carcinogenity notations but no BEIs.

The OELs and their criteria are published in the Official Gazette. The OELs have legal force and they are often reviewed.

Ontario

The OELs are reviewed through the OEL Task Force, including labor, management and ministry representatives. For the revision, criteria documents from other countries are used. Revised or new OELs are published in the Ontario Gazette. Some regulations for specific substances can be found on the Internet in the electronic "Gazette" under Occupational Health and Safety Act. A complete list of OELs is available only as paper version. The OELs have legal force.

Alberta

The OELs are contained in the Chemical Hazards Regulation (Alberta Regulation 393/88). The Technical Committee of Occupational Exposure Limits, established by Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety, recommends and revises OELs. The committee consists of experts from the industry, academia, labour and government. The OELs and criteria documents are published in the Occupational Health and Safety magazine and legally binding.

Back to top

Estonia

In Estonia, the occupational Exposure Limits are called Töökeskkonna keemiliste ohutegurite piirnormid. They are prepared and endorsed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, and are a part of the National Chemical Act regulations.

The limits are set with reference to current European Union and Swedish Occupational Exposure Limits. Social partners, OSH inspectors and representatives of the industry are given chance to comment on the proposed limit values. The table is revised when there are substantial changes in the corresponding EU legislation, or the are special problems with the chemical safety.

The Estonian table presents concentration limits for Time-weighted average (8 hour) and Short-term exposure limits (15 minute). There are also binding biological occupational limit values for lead in blood. Substances toxic for reproduction, carcinogenic substances, substances with sensitisation capabilities, and effective skin absorbents are annotated by R, C, S, and A, respectively.

Internet Links
The Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonia (in Estonian and English)
The Exposure limits can be found here (in Estonian):

Updated
October 2002

Back to top

Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Occupational Exposure Limits are based on the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists’ list of Threshold Limit Values and also on standards.

The OELs are adopted by the Labour Department of Hong Kong, who have the authority to adjust them based upon new health hazard information. The exposure limits apply only to those workplace operations covered by the Factories and Industrial Undertakings legislation.

Internet Links
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology provide some basic information on OELs at:
http://www.ab.ust.hk/sepo/sftywise/199504/page4.htm
Safety & Environmental Protection Office of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology:
http://www.ab.ust.hk/sepo/
Hong Kong Labour Department
http://www.info.gov.hk/labour/

Updated
November 2002

Back to top

Japan

The Japanese Association of Industrial Health, a private academic organisation, recommends Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs). These OELs have no legal force. The majority of Japanese PEL-list values are the same as ACGIH (USA) Threshold Limit Values. The types of PELs are TWA, STEL, Ceilings and BEI (see under USA for an explanation of these terms). The OELs and their criteria documents are once a year published in the Japanese Journal of Industrial Health.

Internet Links
Japanese Journal of Occupational Health
http://joh.med.uoeh-u.ac.jp

Back to top

Mexico

The Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) is responsible for setting standards regarding Permissible Exposure Limits (PEL). The list is based on the ACGIH (USA) Threshold Limit Values.

The scientific basis is the use of ACGIH criteria documents. The Secretariat of Commerce and Industrial Development (SECOFI) publishes the standards in the Official Journal of the Federation. The standards have legal force. The Diario Oficial de la Federación (Mexican Federal Official Journal) is available via website of the Secretaría de Economía.

Internet Links
Secretaría de Economía web site
http://www.naftaworks.org/

Back to top

New Zealand

In New Zealand, the Occupational Exposure Limits are called Workplace Exposure Standards (WES). These include Time Weighted Averages (TWAs), Short Term Exposure Limits (STELs) and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs). The WESs are reviewed annually, and a list is published by the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour.

The exposure limits are prepared by an expert committee, consisting of representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour, toxicologists, and medical/scientific experts as required. The committee considers documentations from ACGIH (US), HSE (UK), NOHSC (Australia), and MAK (Germany).

The WESs are intended to be used as guidelines for those involved in occupational health when applying the hierarchy of control set out required by the Code of Practice for the Management of Substances Hazardous to Health and obliged under Health and Safety in Employment Act. An employer is required to take all practical steps to either prevent exposure to the hazardous substance or to reduce the exposure to the lowest practicable level.

Internet Links
The home page of the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour
http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/

Updated
August 2002

Back to top

Norway

In Norway, the Arbejdstilsynet (Central Labour Inspectorate) issues OELs. The Inspection has established a working group with representatives from the employers, employees and direction of the inspection. As scientific base are used criteria documents from the Nordic Countries, Germany and United States and Norwegian workplace experience. There are values for TWA, STEL and Ceiling. There is also notation for issues such as carcinogenicity. The standards are recommendations and they are not legally binding until they are used by the labour inspection in orders or instructions for companies. The list is reviewed yearly.

Back to top

Republic of South Africa

In the Republic of South Africa both the Department of Labour and the Department of Minerals and Energy issue Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for airborne pollutants.

The OELs from the Department of Labour are based on the OELs of the United Kingdom and described in the Hazardous Chemical Substances Regulations (Annexure 1) of 1995. The limit values are set by the Minister through the Chief Inspector on recommendation of an Advisory Council and listed by notice in the Government Gazette. Working with asbestos or lead is subject to special regulations.

Department of Labour Exposure Limits are divided in OEL-RL (recommended limit) and OEL CL (control limit), the latter relating to the very problematic substances such as carcinogens. They are listed in table 1 respectively table 2 of the said annexure.

An OEL-CL is defined as the maximum concentration of an airborne substance, averaged over a reference period, to which employees may be exposed by inhalation under any circumstances, and is specified together with the appropriate reference period in Table 1 of Annexure 1. Control measures are considered adequate if the air concentration is below the OEL-CL values.

An OEL-RL is defined as the concentration of an airborne substance, averaged over a reference period, at which, according to current knowledge, there is no evidence that it is likely to be injurious to employees if they are exposed by inhalation, day after day, to that concentration. It should be kept as much below the OEL-RL value as practicably possible.

In addition to the above limit values the Department of Labour sets Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs) to supplement the exposure monitoring.

The Hazardous Chemical Substances Regulations and the occupational exposure limits in this publication do not apply to exposure to substances hazardous to health in mines. The OELs from the Department of Minerals and Energy are described in the Occupational Hygiene Regulations of 2002, OELs for Airborne Pollutants Schedule 22.9(2)(a)

Internet Links
The OELs and the background legislation can be viewed under the following URL from the South Africa Institute of Occupational Hygiene:
http://www.saioh.org/OELs/oels.htm
South Africa Institute of Occupational Hygiene (SAIOH):
http://www.saioh.org/index.htm
South Africa Department of Labour
http://www.labour.gov.za/
The Mine Health and Safety Act an be viewed under:
http://www.acts.co.za/mhs/index.htm
South Africa Department of Minerals and Energy
http://www.dme.gov.za/

Updated
August 2002

Back to top

Switzerland

The Swiss list of exposure limits, with its MAK and BAT values, is modelled after the German MAK list (and somewhat after the ACGIH - American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists – the TLV list).

Maximale Arbeitsplatzkonzentrationen (MAKs), or maximum workplace concentrations, give the maximum concentration of a chemical substance in the workplace. They are the maximum allowable average concentrations of a working substance in the air in form of gas, steam or dust, whereby it can be assumed that the health of the vast majority of healthy employees being exposed to these substances during an 8-hours working time up to 42 hours a week or even over longer periods will not be harmed.

Biologische Arbeitsplatztoleranzwerte (BATs) , Biological Tolerance Values, give limits for the concentration of some substances in the human body from workplace exposure.

The Swiss list contains substances that are considered harmful to humans, together with their applicable limit values. It also contains information and safety precautions for particular problem areas, such as carcinogens, dust, noise, heat, pressure, vibration, radioactive substances, and skin absorption, as well as remarks on testing methodology.

The limit values are documented in “Grenzwerte am Arbeitsplatz” (limit values at workplace) and are published by the Swiss National Insurance Fund (SUVA), in line with a decree of the Bundesrat and in conjunction with the limit value commission of the Swiss Association for Occupational Medicine, Hygiene and Safety.

Internet Links
The booklet “Grenzwerte am Arbeitsplatz” (besides German also available in French or Italian) can be downloaded under the following URL: http://wwwitsp1.suva.ch/sap/its/mimes/waswo/99/pdf/01903-d.pdf

Updated
March 2003

Back to top

USA

The Occupational Safety systems in the United States vary from state to state. Here, Information is given on major providers of the Occupational Exposure Limits in the USA - ACGIH, OSHA, and NIOSH.

ACGIH

The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) publishes since 1946 Maximum Allowable Concentrations (MAC), which were later renamed to "Threshold Limit Values" (TLVs). Threshold Limit Values are defined as an exposure limit "to which it is believed nearly all workers can be exposed day after day for a working lifetime without ill effect". The ACGIH is a professional organisation of occupational hygienists from universities or governmental institutions. Occupational hygienists from private industry can join as associate members since shortly.

Today, 9 ACGIH committees focus their energies on a range of topics such as agriculture safety and health, air sampling instruments, bio-aerosols, biological exposure indices, construction, industrial ventilation, infectious agents, chemical substance TLVs, and physical agent TLVs. Once a year, the different committees propose new threshold limits or best working practice guides. The list of TLVs includes more than 700 chemical substances and physical agents, as well as dozens of Biological Exposure Indices for selected chemicals. Substances are nominated by the TLV Committee based on new occupational exposure data or requests of governmental organisations, workers, industry etc.. The committee decides which substances selected for consideration are to be studied and votes at least once a year on action items.

The committee has developed selection criteria for substances, taking into account scientific evidence or workplace experience. Every TLV or BEI is developed and based on the available, relevant, scientific data for that agent. Some TLVs include also skin and carcinogenity notations and Biological Exposure Indices.

The ACGIH defines different TLV-Types as there are:

• Threshold Limit Value - Time-Weighted Average (TLV-TWA): the time-weighted average concentration for a conventional 8-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek, to which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse effect.
• Threshold Limit Value-Short - Term Exposure Limit (TLV-STEL): the concentration to which it is believed that workers can be exposed continuously for a short period of time without suffering from
• Irritation,
• chronic or irreversible tissue damage, or
• narcosis.
  STEL is defined as a 15-minute TWA exposure, which should not be exceeded at any time during a workday
• Threshold Limit Value - Ceiling (TLV-C): the concentration that should not be exceeded during any part of the working exposure.
• Excursion Limits. There is a general excursion limit recommendation that applies to those TLV-TWAs that do not have STELs. Excursions in worker exposure levels may exceed 3 times the TLV-TWA for no more than a total of 30 minutes during a workday, and under no circumstances should they exceed 5 times the TLV-TWA, provided that the TLV-TWA is not exceeded.

ACGIH-TLVs do not have a legal force in the USA, they are only recommendations. OSHA defines regulatory limits. However, ACGIH-TLVs and the criteria documents are a very common base for setting TLVs in the USA and in many other countries. ACGIH exposure limits are in many cases more protective than OSHA's. Many US companies use the current ACGIH levels or other internal and more protective limits.

Reference Source
Cited from: http://www.acgih.org/Resources/acronyms.htm

OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labour (USDOL) publishes Permissible Exposure Limits (PEL). PELs are regulatory limits on the amount or concentration of a substance in the air, and they are enforceable. The initial set of limits from 1971 was based on the ACGIH TLVs. An attempt to extend the number of TLV to other widely used chemicals was proposed by OSHA in 1989. OSHA additionally proposed in 1992 to apply most of these new and revised limits to construction, maritime, and agriculture. OSHA currently has around 500 Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) for various forms of approximately 300 chemical substances, many of which are widely used in industrial settings. Existing PELs are contained in a document called "29 CFR 1910.1000", the air contaminants standard.

If OSHA determines that a specific standard is needed, any of several advisory committees may be called upon to develop specific recommendations. There are two standing committees, and ad hoc committees may be appointed to examine special areas of concern to OSHA. All Advisory committees, standing or ad hoc, must have members representing management, labour, and state agencies, as well as one or more designees of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The two standing advisory committees are:

• National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), which advises, consults with, and makes recommendations to the Secretary of HHS and to the Secretary of Labor on matters regarding administration of the Act.
• Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, which advises the Secretary of Labor on formulation of construction safety and health standards and other regulations.

OSHA uses in a similar way as the ACGIH the following types of OELs: TWAs, Action Levels, Ceiling Limits, STELs, Excursion Limits and in some cases BEIs.

NIOSH

Types of RELs are TWA, STEL, Ceiling, Biological Exposure Indices. The recommendations and the criteria are published in several different document types, such as Current Intelligent Bulletins (CIB), Alerts, Special Hazard Reviews, Occupational Hazard Assessments and Technical Guidelines.

Other US OEL publishers
Other exposure limits exist in the USA, published by organisations including:

• The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA);
• The MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration);
• The American National Standards Institute (ANSI);
• The U.S. Navy.

Internet Links
US-EU Cooperation on Workplace Safety & Health
http://www.osha-slc.gov/us-eu/
Definitions of TLV terms can be found on the ACGIH (USA) site at
http://www.acgih.org/Products/tlvintro.htm
The TLVs and BEIs can be ordered off the Internet at
http://www.acgih.org/store/ProductDetail.cfm?id=478
Some downloadable TLV and BEI documents are available on the Internet (for a charge) at
http://www.acgih.org/store/BrowseProducts.cfm?type=cat&id=16
For the ACGHIH (USA) Threshold Limit Value List, visit
http://www.acgih.org/home.htm
OSHA's limit Values and criteria documents are on the Internet at
http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/pel/index.html
NIOSH's documents and lists are available at
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/database.html

Back to top

To OELs main page