National and International Approaches to Occupational Standard Setting Within Europe

Abstract

Occupational exposure limits (OELs) for chemicals in workroom air have been published in more than 70 countries. However, few countries generate or update their national lists of OELs independently. The acronym {open_quotes}OEL{close_quotes} is used here as a general term independent of what it is called in an individual country. OELs may be recommendations or they may have a legal status. They may be based on economic impact and technological feasibility. This makes a simple comparison of OELs from different countries partly misleading. OELs should not be compared without an opportunity to review the methods in each case. The development of OELs in Europe has been described previously. Briefly, the first recommendations for use of OELs were established in Germany as early as 1886. After the Second World War, the list of threshold limit values (TLVs) from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) was used in some European countries with a more or less mandatory function. In 1958, West Germany developed its own list and some countries (Austria, Switzerland) adopted the German list. In the 1970s, The Netherlands and Sweden introduced their own systems for establishing and validating OELs. Several other European countries followed later on. 15 refs., 1more » tab.« less