Basic H&S Guidelines

7.3 Occupational Exposure Limits for Chemicals in the Air

Prolonged or excessive exposure or contact with most hazardous chemicals can lead to adverse
health symptoms, illness, disease, and, in extreme cases, death. Other hazardous chemicals can
have similar adverse health effects after only short, or acute, contact with the chemical.
Government agencies and professional organisations have established airborne exposure limits for
a range of chemicals. These limits are intended to define workplace conditions to which it is
thought that virtually all workers may be exposed on a regular basis without developing adverse
health effects.

The Threshold Limit Values (TLVs), which are published annually by the American Conference of
Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), have been selected as the appropriate set of exposure
limits for use in factories. The limits that are specified are minimum standards; they are not
intended to supercede more stringent national or local standards that may exist.

The TLVs have been established on the basis of an 8-hour workday and a 40-hour work week.
However, factory workers often have work schedules that approach 10-12 hour workdays and 60-
hour work weeks. To account for the likelihood of longer work shifts, the TLVs are reduced
proportionately as the workers’ hours of chemical exposure increase.

The following guidelines list the ACGIH’s 2006 TLVs for several chemicals that commonly are used
in footwear and apparel manufacturing. Workplace concentrations of these chemicals and dusts
should be maintained below these exposure limits. The exposure limits are expressed in
concentration units of both “ppm” (parts per million in air) and “mg/m3” (milligrams per cubic
metre of air).

Social & Environmental Affairs Page 41 of 127 Feburary 2010