LOWERING THRESHOLD LIMIT VALUES (TLVS) HAS ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

A brief accounting is given of early attempts to develop limits on the levels of volatile industrial substances to which workers could be ex posed. The progression of events leading to the formation of the Ameri can Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) and its A irborne Contaminants Committee, later to be the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) Committee, is explained. Currently, the TLV Chemical Substances Committee has four subcommittees which review the data for different t ypes of industrial substances. As the TLVs are lowered to prevent evid ence of toxicity in exposed workers, the possibilities for fire/explos ion due to reaching flammable limits are also decreased.