WorkSafeBC releases amended OELs following stakeholder review
WorkSafeBC, British Columbia’s workers’ compensation board, has reviewed the occupational exposure limits (OELs) for 2008 and 2009 and announced a number of revisions.
Like many other jurisdictions, B.C. relies on guidelines published annually by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) to determine new or revised threshold limit values (TLVs). Prior to 2010, the province automatically adopted the guidelines. But WorkSafeBC’s board of directors recently approved a new OEL limit review and adoption procedure that allowed it to consult with stakeholders on the new limits in order to identify any problem areas prior to the adoption of the annual new or revised ACGIH TLVs.
In July, the WorkSafeBC’s board of directors met and reviewed the results of stakeholder feedback. On Aug. 31, the board announced the results of that meeting.
It said the 2008 and 2009 adopted OELs for substances without implementation issues are retained for aluminum metal and insoluble compounds, benomyl, ethanol, ferbam, rubber solvent and VM&P naptha.
For the other substances, the results of the stakeholder consultation and the internal review have identified that there are no validated air sampling methods or sampling devices to measure at the new or revised TLVs. For sulfur dioxide, there are sampling issues as well as practicability of implementation issues.
After considering these issues, the board of directors decided to reinstate the former exposure limits that were in place prior to the revision by ACGIH until the implementation issues can be resolved for these substances.
The following WorkSafeBC OELs are assigned to these 2008 substances:
|
Substances |
WorkSafeBC Occupational Exposure Limit | ||
|
8 hour time-weighted avg |
Short-term exposure limit |
Ceiling limit | |
|
Butenes, all isomers, including isobutene |
No previous limit |
No previous limit |
No previous limit |
|
Carbaryl |
5 mg/m3 |
||
|
Indene |
10 ppm |
||
|
Iodine |
0.1 ppm | ||
|
Iodides |
No previous limit |
No previous limit |
No previous limit |
|
Natural rubber latex, as total proteins, inhalable |
0.001 mg/m3 |
||
|
1,1,1,2-tetrachloro-2,2-difluoroethane |
500 ppm |
||
|
Thiram |
1 mg/m3 |
||
|
Trimellitic anhydride |
0.04 mg/m3 | ||
The following WorkSafeBC OELs are assigned to these 2009 substances:
|
Substances |
WorkSafeBC Occupational Exposure Limit | ||
|
8 hour time-weighted avg |
Short-term exposure limit |
Ceiling limit | |
|
Beryllium and compounds |
0.002 mg/m3 |
0.01 mg/m3 |
|
|
Dibutyl phosphate |
1 ppm |
2 ppm |
|
|
Diethanoloamine |
2 mg/m3 |
||
|
Endosulfan |
0.1 mg/m3 |
||
|
Ethyleneimine |
0.5 ppm |
||
|
Methyl parathion |
0.2 mg/m3 |
||
|
Propyleneimine |
2 ppm |
||
|
Sulfur dioxide |
2 ppm |
5 ppm |
|
|
Sulprofos |
1 mg/m3 |
||
The following two substances are removed from the Table of OELs for Excluded Substances in Policy R5.48-1 because the ACGIH TLVs are now more protective and there are no implementation issues. The ACGIH TLVs are assigned to the OELs for these substances:
|
Hydroquinone |
8 hour TWA 1 mg/m3 |
|
Polyvinyl chloride |
8 hour TWA 1 mg/m3 (respirable fraction) |
These changes are reflected in the updated Table of OELs for Excluded Substances in Policy R5.48-1.
