THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASBESTOS THRESHOLD LIMIT VALUE - SCIENTIFIC INDIFFERENCE AND CORPORATE INFLUENCE

Several recent articles have critiqued the process employed by the Ame rican Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists in determining Threshold Limit Values. Criticisms have included inadequate data colle ction, inadequate research, excessive corporate influence, and slow re sponse to informational changes. In this article, the authors address the historical development of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' asbestos exposure guideline. They demonstrate t hat the proposed guideline was known to be inadequate when it was firs t proposed, was severely criticized between 1946 and 1968, but nonethe less was promulgated annually and remained unchanged until 1971.