Has the federal government made recommendations to protect human health?
The EPA recommends that children not drink water containing over 0.5 parts of naphthalene per million parts of water (0.5 ppm) for more than 10 days, or 0.4 ppm for longer than 7 years. Adults should not drink water with more than 1 ppm for more than 7 years. For water consumed over a lifetime, the EPA suggests it contain no more than 0.02 ppm naphthalene. The EPA requires that discharges or spills into the environment of 100 pounds or more be reported. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a limit of 10 parts per million (10 ppm) for the level of naphthalene in workplace air over an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) considers more than 250 ppm of naphthalene in air to be immediately dangerous to life or health. This is the exposure level of a chemical that is likely to cause permanent health problems or death.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a maximum amount of 4 milligrams fluoride per liter of drinking water (4 mg/L). EPA recommends that states limit fluoride in drinking water to 2 mg/L. Spills of more than 10 pounds of fluorine, 100 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, or 1,000 pounds of sodium fluoride must be reported to the National Response Center. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) limits an 8-hour work day, 40-hour work week to 0.2 milligrams of fluorides per cubic meter air (0.2 mg/m³). The level for hydrogen fluoride is 2.5 mg/m³. The highest level of fluoride allowed by OSHA for an 8-hour work day, 40-hour work week is 2.5 mg/m³.
The EPA has set a limit for drinking water of 4 milligrams of chlorine per liter of water (4 mg/L) and also recommends that levels of chlorine in lakes and streams be limited to 10 mg/L to prevent possible human health effects from drinking water or eatingfishcontaminated with this chemical.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a permissible exposure limit for chlorine of 1 parts per million (ppm) for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a ceiling limit of 1 part of chlorine per million parts of workplace air (1 ppm). The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) recommends a time-weighted average (TWA) threshold limit value (TLV) of 0.5 ppm of chlorine for an 8-hour per day, 40-hour work week, and a short-term exposure level (STEL) of 1 ppm of chlorine.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has many regulations for the transportation of explosives including tetryl. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a maximum level of 1.5 milligrams of tetryl per cubic meter of workplace air (1.5 mg/m³) for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) also recommend a maximum concentration of 1.5 mg/m³ in workplace air for an 8- to 10-hour workday, 40-hour workweek.
