Permissible Exposure Limit
In the United States, there are many laws and regulations that enforce the safety of employees in their work environment. There are certain occupations that unfortunately give way to exposure of certain materials and substance that could potentially cause harm to those who come in contact with it. Permissible Exposure Limit (or PEL) is the measurement of the legal limit of substances that a person may come in contact with while performing daily routines on the job. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration works as the leading source to creating these limits of exposure.
The average exposure over a long period of time is taken in order to determine a proper (and safe) amount of substance that a person can come in contact with. Typically, the OSHA determines this by an eight hour work day. Individuals responsible for this limit have determined that a person may be exposed to a larger PEL, but if the average exposure limit is kept low, they are less likely to be harmed by the material. There are other regulations for exposure limit, such as the ‘ceiling limit' which is placed on substances that have immediate harmful effects.
In the workforce, if a person is exposed to asbestos, radiation, or other harmful material, they are monitored by devices kept on them during the day. If the PEL limit reaches a hazardous amount, the employee must be taken out of the facility and transferred to another portion of the facility or workspace. If the business or facility does not abide by this legal limit and are caught, they can be fined until the facility remains under the exposure limit. This can cause complications in their work environment if the facility cannot run daily because of their negligence to harmful exposure limits.
Asbestos is one of the materials that has to be closely monitored because the effects of inhaling or coming in contact with the material do not show forth until many years after exposure. Many years ago, there were no limits on these types of substances because no one knew the harsh effects it could bring to a person's health. Today, research and testing can conclude that asbestos inhalation causes deadly diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis. Treatment and elimination of the disease is very difficult and poses no positive results for most patients. The Permissible Exposure Limit is our country's way of keeping those who work in hazardous environments safe from life threatening effects in later years.
Last modified: December 17 2007.
