Adjustment of occupational exposure limits for unusual work schedules.pdfVIP

Occupational Hygiene, Environment Chemistry Centre 2 Smith Street, REDBANK, QLD 4301, Australia PO Box 467, GOODNA, QLD, 4300 Australia Telephone +61 7 3810 6333 Facsimile +61 7 3810 6363 ABN 83 705 537 586 Page 1 of 21 Adjustment of occupational exposure limits for unusual work schedules. There are several models available for adjusting occupational exposure limits for work schedules other than the “normal” 8-hour 5-day week rosters. The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission recommends the use of the Brief and Scala model for calculating adjustments to the exposure standards. There are two equations that can be used to apply the Brief and Scala model one for adjustment based on daily exposure and one for adjustment based on average weekly exposure. The daily adjustment equation is: Where RF = reduction factor; and h = hours worked per shift The average weekly hours adjustment equation is: Where h = average hours worked per week over full roster cycle The “reduction factor” is multiplied by the 8-hr exposure standard to obtain the new standard. The decision to adjust an exposure standard is based on the toxic affects of the agent under consideration. Generally those agents with very short term acute effects are not adjusted and those agents with longer term effects are adjusted. It is recommended that the OSHA system be used to determine which agents are to be adjusted and how they are to be adjusted. OSHA has placed approximately 500 chemical agents into 6 “Work Schedule Categories” – refer Table 1. The “Work Schedule Category” is selected based on the health effects of the agent. These generic health effects are listed in Table 2. The “Work Schedule Category” then determines the adjustment criteria to be used for that agent – either no adjustment, adjustment based on daily exposure (Equation 1), or adjustment based on average weekly exposure (Equation 2). T