The Permissible Exposure Limit

The Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) is a limit set and regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. These limits are applied to anything potentially hazardous in the work place, ranging from chemicals to physical dangers such as noise.

If levels of the agent at your place of employment exceed the PEL, your employer is in violation of the law and is putting you and your fellow employees at risk. If you or someone you love has been injured at work due to employer negligence, contact the Austin employment attorneys of The Melton Law Firm, by calling (512) 330-0017 today.

Determining the Permissible Exposure Limit

PELs are usually judged according to a time-weighted average, or TWA. Such averages are determined based on the exposure to an agent over a long period of time, usually eight hours (the length of the average work day). Because it is based on average over time, employees can be subjected to concentrations of the agent which are higher than the PEL for brief periods of time. The “ceiling limit” is the term that defines the amount of agent that cannot be exceeded, and employers cannot legally expose employees to agents above this concentration.

OSHA has set PELs for all dangerous chemicals and substances, from cadmium to asbestos to Benzidine.

Contact Us

If you have been injured as a result of unsafe concentrations of an agent which exceeds the PEL, or suspect that your employer is violating the law in this regard, contact the Austin employment lawyers of The Melton Law Firm, by calling (512) 330-0017.