India consults on the limits for chemical exposure at work

A new code of practice for safeguarding employees from chemical airborne pollutants in the workplace is being discussed in India. 

In May 2023 the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) published the draft Indian Standard, Work Environment Monitoring (Airborne pollutants) - Code of Practice and is accepting comments on it until 23 July 2023. The draft contains standards for monitoring data of chemical variables responsible for airborne pollutants, frequency and kind of sample collection, and data interpretation. The complete draft can be found here. 

The guidelines state that: 

• Environmental monitoring in a plant shall take place under normal process conditions and ideally every day and throughout the day. 

• Airborne contaminants shall be identified by monitoring all situations where it is possible that a person can be exposed.  

• The total duration of a process shall be estimated when a process or operation is carried out repeatedly. 

• When two or more contaminants are present simultaneously, they shall be monitored individually and simultaneously. 

The draft suggests that the exact threshold limit value for individual contaminants may be obtained from relevant literature such as the American Council of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' (ACGIH) list of chemical pollutants' threshold limit values (TLV).