ACGIH General Info

Question 1

What is the ACGIH?

Answer 1

A private not-for-profit scientific organization

Question 2

What does the ACGIH do?

Answer 2

They propose guidelines known as the TLVs and BEIs for use by industrial hygienists in making decisions regarding safe levels of exposure to various hazards found in the workplace

Question 3

Is the ACGIH a standards setting body?

Answer 3

No

Question 4

What are consensus standards?

Answer 4

Voluntary consensus standards are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standard bodies; consensus standards process involves canvassing the opinions, views, and positions of all interested parties and then developing a consensus position that’s acceptable to all parties

Question 5

Do TLVs take into consideration technological and economic feasibility?

Answer 5

No

Question 6

TLVs and BEIs are developed based on what?

Answer 6

Health factors

Question 7

Briefly describe how a TLV is created

Answer 7

• Committees review existing published and peer reviewed literature (under study)
• Draft documentation is developed based off scientific review
• Notice of intended changes becomes available to the public
• TLV/BEI and documentation adopted

Question 8

What is the 3x5 rule?

Answer 8

If log normally distributed data has a geometric standard deviation of 2.0, then 5% of all values will exceed 3.13 times the geometric mean