ACGIH TLV Health Standards

April 5, 2013 No Comments

Besides the OSHA PELs (permissible exposure limits), the other occupational health and hygiene reference that I most often use is ACGIH’s  TLVs and BEIs.

The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) is a private, not-for-profit, non-governmental corporation whose members are industrial hygienists.  Every year, they publish their TLVs (threshold limit values) and BEIs (biological exposure indices) in a booklet that is about 250 pages.   Their TLVs are sometimes more up-to-date than the OSHA PELs are.    For my use, if there is a difference between an OSHA PEL and an ACGIH TLV, I will always use which ever one is lower and more protective.

While technically not “standards”, the TLVs are considered occupational health “guidelines” are “for use by industrial hygienists in making decisions regarding safe levels of exposure to various hazards found in the workplace.”

In addition to TLVs on more than 700 chemical substances, this publication also covers: carcinogenicity, particles, chemical mixtures, oxygen content, noise, radiation, lasers, ergonomics, cold stress, and heat stress.

The ACGIH TLVs and BEIs booklet is available on-line for $49.95 at – http://www.acgih.org/store/ .   As with any standard or guideline, one should always use the most current edition of the publication.

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