Safety Group Urges OSHA To Tighten Noise PEL, Pointing Out Difficulty Of 'Feasibility' Approach

A major worker safety group is formally urging OSHA to lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for occupational noise, which would bring the policy in line with the NIOSH recommendation and the levels recognized by many employers in the U.S. and by other countries, following conversations with the agency on the idea, a source says. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) views lowering the PEL as a better way to tackle the problem than imposing engineering controls, after OSHA last year scrapped controversial plans to make it easier to impose engineering and administrative controls