Check out these guides from ACGIH to determine safe exposure levels to chemical substances and physical agents in your facility

by Brianna Crandall — April 1, 2019 — The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) has released its 2019 editions of the TLVs and BEIs book and the Guide to Occupational Exposure Values.

The information in the user-friendly, pocket-sized TLVs and BEIs book is used worldwide as a guide for evaluation and control by industrial hygienists of workplace exposures to chemical substances and physical agents in such settings as manufacturing, laboratories, healthcare facilities and custodial work.

Threshold Limit Value (TLV) occupational exposure guidelines are recommended for more than 700 chemical substances and physical agents. There are more than 50 Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs) that cover more than 80 chemical substances. Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) registry numbers are listed for each chemical. Introductions to each section and appendices provide philosophical bases and practical recommendations for using TLVs and BEIs.

The Guide to Occupational Exposure Values is a companion document to the ACGIH TLVs and BEIs book and serves as a readily accessible reference for comparison of the most recently published values: 2019 Chemical Substance TLVs from ACGIH; AIHA/OARS Workplace Environmental Exposure Limits (WEELs); the OSHA Final Rule PELs; RELs from NIOSH; MAKs from the German Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Workplace; and carcinogenicity designations from ACGIH, OSHA, NIOSH, MAK, IARC, US NTP, and US EPA. The Guide also includes a CAS number index.

ACGIH is now offering these companion references as a combo set. The set includes the TLVs and BEIs book and the Guide to Occupational Exposure Values.

The publications are available by phone, fax or email, or by visiting the ACGIH Online Publications Store. Use the following information when ordering:

Related resources

To support the two publications listed above, ACGIH also released the 2019 Supplement to the Documentation of the Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices, 7th Edition, which contains documentation for the substances, with their corresponding values and notations, that were on the Notice of Intended Changes for 2018, and have been approved and adopted as Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs). A revised copyright page and Table of Contents page (with the new TLVs incorporated) are also included. The pages of the Supplement are in a three-hole punched format that can be easily inserted into the Documentation binder.

For those who prefer the digital format, ACGIH also released the 2019 TLVs and BEIs with 7th Edition Documentation, CD-ROM, which offers access to:

  • Everything contained in the 2019 TLVs and BEIs book — all the TLVs for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and all the BEIs (including the Notice of Intended Changes and Appendices). Introductions to each section provide the philosophical and practical bases for the uses and limitations. The Chemical Substances and Physical Agents TLVs and the BEIs are available in searchable PDF format.
  • In addition, each chemical and/or determinant is conveniently linked to a searchable PDF file of its corresponding documentation from the Documentation of the Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices, 7th Ed.  All current documentation for the adopted Chemical Substances and Physical Agents TLVs and the BEIs through 2019 is included.

The CD-ROM is available in a single user version as well as in a network version.

ACGIH is a 501(c)(3) charitable scientific organization that advances occupational and environmental health. ACGIH is one of the industry’s leading publications resources, with approximately 400 titles relative to occupational and environmental health and safety.