Setting a Higher Standard: The Limitations of Regulatory Limits

Pieretti discusses whether business' safety culture would succeed if it simply follows the letter of the law and avoid government fines. For regulatory purposes, OSHA has its permissible exposure limits (PELs) for less than 500 substances. But when it comes to employee exposure to chemicals' airborne contaminants, most safety and health professionals usually use the recommended exposure limits (RELs) from the CDCs National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and/or the threshold limit values (TLVs) from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).