Vinyl Chloride Exposure Limits

Centers for disease control and prevention 2006.

Vinyl chloride exposure limits.

Shipped as a liquefied compressed gas. No employee may be exposed to vinyl chloride at levels greater than 1 ppm averaged over any 8 hour period or levels greater than 5 ppm averaged over any period exceeding 15 minutes. Vinyl chloride is treated as a human carcinogen. Agency for toxic substances and disease registry.

Pvc consumer products may contain very small residual amounts of vinyl chloride. Recent improvements to manufacturing processes have substantially reduced the levels of residual vinyl chloride in pvc products. Vinyl chloride is flammable and reactive and a dangerous fire and explosion hazard. Osha pel permissible exposure limit 1 ppm averaged over an 8 hour workshift niosh idlh immediately dangerous to life or health not yet determined.

Exposure to vinyl chloride from food and beverage consumption is estimated at 0 1 µg day. Niosh recommends that the exposure limit for a time weighted average twa for vinyl chloride in air be the lowest reliably detectable concentration. Hazardous operation means any operation procedure or activity where a release of either vinyl chloride liquid or gas might be expected as a consequence of the operation or because of an accident in the operation which would result in an employee exposure in excess of the permissible exposure limit. 1 no employee may be exposed to vinyl chloride at concentrations greater than 1 ppm averaged over any 8 hour period and 2 no employee may be exposed to vinyl chloride at concentrations greater than 5 ppm averaged over any period not exceeding 15 minutes.

The monomer of vinyl chloride. Standards and guidelines for industrial exposure to vinyl chloride the following is quoted from the us atsdr. Exposure to vinyl chloride is also subject to workplace safety standards for airborne concentrations. The us epa and fda limit vinyl chloride in drinking water to 0 002 ppm.

Workplace exposure limits osha. Last accessed december 28 2018. Congress specifically identified vinyl chloride as a hazardous air pollutant under the clean air act and it is regulated as such by the epa. Chloroethene chloroethylene ethylene monochloride monochloroethene monochloroethylene vc vcm vinyl chloride monomer vcm colorless gas or liquid below 7 f with a pleasant odor at high concentrations.

Explosive polymerization may occur at elevated temperatures if vinyl chloride is not inhibited. The legal airborne permissible exposure limit pel is 1 ppm averaged over an 8 hour workshift and 5 ppm. In the 1970s residual vinyl chloride was found in products such as vinyl music records plastic food bottles kitchen wrapping films and bathroom tiles. Food ingestion is a trivial source of exposure.

The food and drug administration currently limits the quantity of vinyl chloride in food contact plastics.