What is Exposure?
Exposure to a substance is uptake into the body. The exposure routes are:
- By breathing fume, dust, gas or mist;
- By skin contact;
- By injection into the skin;
- By swallowing.
WELs are set to help employers meet their legal responsibilities under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, which requires employers to prevent, or if this is not reasonably practicable, to adequately control, their employees exposure to hazardous substances.New / Revised Workplace Exposure Limit Details
The new WELs are published in the Health and Safety Executive publication, which can be accessed via the link below:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/eh40.htm
The new WELs came into force, in Northern Ireland, on 14 Sept
In the UK IOELVs are transposed as workplace exposure limits (WELs) and short term exposure limits (STELs). A WEL is defined as the concentration of a hazardous substance in the air that people breathe, averaged over a specified reference period referred to as a time-weighted average. Two periods are used: long-term exposure limit is 8 hours and STEL is 15 minutes.
To view a summary of new WELs details visit the link below:
