The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has expressed concern over the recent lawsuit filed by industry groups challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) use of threshold limit values (TLVs) used to communicate the risk of exposure limits to chemical hazards through OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HazCom). ASSE is concerned that if successful, this suit could prevent workers from obtaining the best available information on chemical exposure limits from employers under the HazCom standard by preventing the inclusion of TLVs on material safety data sheets (MSDSs), a practice that has existed for 25 years. “The issue of setting appropriate exposure limits for dangerous chemicals being used in the workplace is a difficult one that calls for cooperative efforts,” said ASSE President Donald S. Jones, Sr., P.E., CSP.  “We feel OSHA is trying to ensure that employees have the best scientific data available on exposure limits to certain hazardous chemicals. The lawsuit against OSHA’s use of TLVs in the HazCom Standard reinforces the need for all stakeholders to address updating workplace exposure limits, an effort that may well require direction from Congress as well as leadership from OSHA.

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SOURCE The American Society of Safety Engineers