Compliance » Are OSHA’S Permissible Exposure Limits Bogus?

Are OSHA’S Permissible Exposure Limits Bogus?

October 20, 2014

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An official with The Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America, a consortium with both management and labor trustees, makes the case that the widely-used OSHA standards for chemical exposure in the industrial or construction workplace – the so-called permissible exposure limits (PELs) – are not adequate, for a number of reasons. They often don’t work in construction, because most construction exposures are “task-based,” with high concentrations for short periods. Another shortcoming of PELs  is that they only account for what’s in the air, and not absorption through skin. They also don’t address potentially dangerous interactions of multiple substances. A better approach, according to the writer, is the one taken by both the EPA and the nuclear industry: the as-low-as-reasonably-achievable standard, or better yet: Circumvent the exposure altogether with engineering controls or substitution of another and less dangerous product. “The bottom line is that when it comes to protecting workers, it’s not as simple as reducing exposures below OSHA limits and declaring a job site safe.”

 

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