Foreign and EU limit values

The European Commission establishes two kinds of occupational exposure limit values or OELs (indicative OELs and binding OELs) which are published in various directives. The currently applicable limit values can be found in the following directives:

Indicative limit values for occupational exposure (Council Directive 80/1107/EEC)
Council Directive 91/322/EEC

Indicative OELs

1. List of indicative OELs (Directive 2000/39/EC)
2. List of indicative OELs (Directive 2006/15/EC)
3. List of indicative OELs (Directive 2009/161/EU)
4. List of indicative OELs (Directive 2017/164/EU)
5. List of indicative OELs (Directive 2019/1831)

Binding OELs

• Chemical Agents:
  Directive 98/24/EC
• Carcinogens and Mutagens:
  Directive 2004/37/EC
  First Amendment - Directive 2017/2398
  Second Amendment - Directive 2019/130
  Third Amendment - Directive 2019/983
  Fourth Amendment - Directive 2022/431
• Asbestos:
  Directive 2009/148/EC
  First Amendment - Directive 2023/2668

European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) - Occupational exposure limit values:

• Working procedure for RAC on the scientific evaluation (PDF, 2 NB)
• Legislation procedure and further information

Database GESTIS International Limit Values

In cooperation with experts of the countries named below, the IFA has gathered the nationally applicable limit values in the workplace air and the EU limit values in a database. The database contains the limit values from the following countries and sources:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada: Ontario (Regulation 833) and Quebec (french and english)
• Denmark
• European Union
• Finland (finnish and swedish)
• France
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy (Decreto Legislativo 9, ALLEGATO XXXVIII und ALLEGATO XLIII (carcinogenic substances), in Italian)
• Japan: Evaluation Standards
• Japan: Recommendations of the Japan Society for Occupational Health - JSOH. (This is a non-governmental academic society of occupational health professionals; English).
• Latvia (1. pielikums, Latvian)
• New Zealand
• Poland: Limit Values and Changes in 2020
• PR China (GBZ 2.1-2007, Chinese)
• Romania (PDF, 1,1 MB)
• Singapore (first schedule)
• South Korea
• Spain: catalogue and searchable database
• Sweden
• Switzerland: OEL database (and Excel table) and Remarks
• The Netherlands
• Turkey
• USA (NIOSH)
• USA (OSHA), 1910 Subpart Z