ACGIH® announced Jan. 31 that it has ratified the 2014 Threshold Limit Values (TLVs®) for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs®). TLVs and BEIs are health-based values derived from ACGIH’s conclusions of the exposure levels that typical workers can experience without adverse health effects. According to ACGIH, BEIs are guidance values for assessing biological monitoring results, and most BEIs are based on a direct correlation with the TLV, although some are instead directly related to the development of an adverse health effect.
The newly released listing includes substances or agents adopted for 2014, substances or agents proposed for the 2014 Notice of Intended Changes (NIC), and substances or agents added to the 2014 Under Study List.
Substances and agents that appear on the NIC are considered “trial values.” The NIC list includes substances and agents for which a TLV/BEI is proposed for the first time, for which changes are proposed, for which retention as an NIC is proposed, or for which withdrawal of the adopted TLV/BEI is proposed. The Under Study List includes substances and agents to be considered for TLVs and/or BEIs.
For more information, read the ACGIH press release. The 2014 listing of substances and agents for TLVs and BEIs is available on the ACGIH website.