Permissible exposure limit

The permissible exposure limit (PEL or OSHA PEL) is a legal limit in the United States for exposure of an employee to a chemical substance or physical agent. For chemicals, the chemical regulation is usually expressed in parts per million (ppm), or sometimes in milligrams per cubic metre (mg/m³). Units of measure for physical agents such as noise are specific to the agent. Permissible exposure limits are established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

A PEL is usually given as a time-weighted average (TWA), although some are short-term exposure limits (STEL) or ceiling limits. A TWA is the average exposure over a specified period of time, usually a nominal eight hours. This means that, for limited periods, a worker may be exposed to concentrations higher than the PEL, so long as the average concentration over eight hours remains lower.

A short-term exposure limit is one that addresses the average exposure over a 15-30 minute period of maximum exposure during a single work shift. A ceiling limit is one that may not be exceeded for any period of time, and is applied to irritants and other materials that have immediate effects.

See also

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• Recommended exposure limit

External links

• OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits site (includes list of PEL values, and legal references)
• 1988 OSHA PEL Project Documentation: List by Chemical Name Available from NIOSH

This standards- or measurement-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Health standards Industry Occupational Safety and Health Administration Chemical safety National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Standards and measurement stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? Dustin Brown Slug (disambiguation) Look at other dictionaries: Recommended Exposure Limit — A Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) is an occupational exposure limit that has been recommended by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to OSHA for adoption as a Permissible Exposure Limit. The REL is a level that NIOSH… …   Wikipedia limit — A boundary or end. [L. limes, boundary] critical l. the upper or lower boundary of a laboratory test result that indicates a life threatening value. elastic l. the greatest stress to which a material may be subjected and still be capable of… …   Medical dictionary Threshold limit value — The threshold limit value (TLV) of a chemical substance is a level to which it is believed a worker can be exposed day after day for a working lifetime without adverse health effects. Strictly speaking, TLV is a reserved term of the American… …   Wikipedia Threshold Limit Value — Time Weighted Average (TLV TWA, Valor Límite Umbral Media Ponderada en el Tiempo o Telematicamente Limites Umbral). Contenido 1 Definición 2 Conceptos similares 3 Véase también 4 …   Wikipedia Español limit — {{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}} noun ADJECTIVE ▪ outer ▪ northern, southern, etc. ▪ three mile, etc. ▪ city …   Collocations dictionary Threshold Limit Value — The Threshold Limit Value (TLV) of a chemical substance is a level to which it is believed a worker can be exposed day after day for a working lifetime without adverse health effects. Strictly speaking, TLV is a reserved term of the American… …   Wikipedia Recommended Exposure Limits*, Table — ▪ Table type of exposure maximum permissible dose Occupational exposures (annual)** Effective dose equivalent limit (stochastic effects) 50 mSv Dose equivalent limits for tissues and organs (non stochastic effects) Lens of eye 150 mSv All others… …   Universalium Beryllium — (pronEng|bəˈrɪliəm) is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. A bivalent element, beryllium is a steel grey, strong, light weight yet brittle alkaline earth metal. It is primarily used as a hardening agent in alloys, most… …   Wikipedia Ammonia — For other uses, see Ammonia (disambiguation). Ammonia …   Wikipedia Benzene — For other uses, see Benzene (disambiguation). See also: Benzole Benzene …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”