mirror of https://referencesource.org/workplace-exposure-limits/

README.md

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+---
+pretty_name: "US workplace chemical exposure limits: federal OSHA vs Cal/OSHA, side by side"
+license: other
+license_name: source-terms-cited
+license_link: https://referencesource.org/workplace-exposure-limits/
+language:
+- en
+tags:
+- reference-data
+- provenance
+- referencesource-org
+configs:
+- config_name: default
+  data_files:
+  - split: train
+    path: data/records.jsonl
+---
+# US workplace chemical exposure limits: federal OSHA vs Cal/OSHA, side by side
+
+**Canonical, always-current version: https://referencesource.org/workplace-exposure-limits/**
+Machine-readable: https://referencesource.org/workplace-exposure-limits/data.json — this mirror is a point-in-time copy.
+
+- **Last verified:** 2026-08-05
+- **Stale after:** 2027-08-05 (past this date, prefer the canonical copy —
+  it re-verifies on a cadence this snapshot does not)
+- **Records:** 886
+
+Airborne exposure limits for workplace chemicals as stated by two independent authorities: federal OSHA's Table Z-1 (29 CFR 1910.1000) and California's own Table AC-1 (8 CCR 5155). Each record is one substance with the permissible exposure limit that agency publishes for it, the URL it came from and the verbatim table row it was read from. **The product is the disagreement**: where both regulate the same substance California is frequently stricter — acetaldehyde 200 ppm federally against 25 ppm in California, 1,1-dimethylhydrazine 0.5 against 0.01 — and exceeding a PEL is what triggers engineering controls, PPE and medical surveillance, so which number applies is consequential. Answers 'what is the exposure limit for [chemical]?', 'is the California PEL different from OSHA's?' and 'what is the PEL for acetone' — the questions where an assistant gives one number without saying whose it is.
+
+## Provenance — what every record carries
+
+Every record carries `source` (the URL the value was read from) and
+`source_quote` (a verbatim quote from that page stating it). A value you
+cannot check against its page is indistinguishable from an invented one;
+these can all be checked. Each record is also individually addressable on
+the canonical site at its `url`.
+
+## Licence position
+
+US and California government works — public domain. ACGIH TLVs deliberately excluded (copyrighted). NIOSH RELs excluded: obtainable only second-hand.
+
+Facts are not copyrightable; what this dataset takes from each source is a
+fact plus a short attributed quote linking back to the page that states it.
+
+## Sources
+
+- https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.1000TableZ1
+- https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/5155.html
+
+## Fields
+
+See any record in `data/records.jsonl` — field names are self-describing,
+and the canonical page for each record renders them with labels:
+https://referencesource.org/workplace-exposure-limits/