The short-term exposure limit (STEL) is a term used in occupational health, industrial hygiene and toxicology

Toxicology

Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...

. The STEL may be a legal

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 limit in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for exposure of an employee to a chemical substance

Chemical substance

In chemistry, a chemical substance is a form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. It cannot be separated into components by physical separation methods, i.e. without breaking chemical bonds. They can be solids, liquids or gases.Chemical substances are...

. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. It was created by Congress of the United States under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970...

 (U.S. OSHA) has set OSHA-STELs for 1,3-Butadiene

1,3-Butadiene

1,3-Butadiene is a simple conjugated diene with the formula C4H6. It is an important industrial chemical used as a monomer in the production of synthetic rubber. When the word butadiene is used, most of the time it refers to 1,3-butadiene....

, benzene

Benzene

Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....

  and ethylene oxide

Ethylene oxide

Ethylene oxide, also called oxirane, is the organic compound with the formula . It is a cyclic ether. This means that it is composed of two alkyl groups attached to an oxygen atom in a cyclic shape . This colorless flammable gas with a faintly sweet odor is the simplest epoxide, a three-membered...

. For chemicals, STEL assessments are usually done for 15 minutes and expressed in parts per million (ppm), or sometimes in milligrams per cubic metre (mg/m³).

The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists

American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists

The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists is a professional association of industrial hygienists and practitioners of related professions, with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio...

 publishes a more extensive list of STELs as threshold limit value

Threshold Limit Value

The threshold limit value of a chemical substance is a level to which it is believed a worker can be exposed day after day for a working lifetime without adverse health effects. Strictly speaking, TLV is a reserved term of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists...

s (TLV-STEL).

Similar national exposure limits

• Australia
  • OES Occupational Exposure Standard
• France
  • VME (valeur moyenne d'exposition)
  • VLE (valeur limite d'exposition)
• Germany
  • MAK (Maximale Arbeitsplatz-Konzentration)
• Netherlands
  • MAC (Maximaal Aanvaarde Concentratie)
• Malaysia
  • PEL (Permissible Exposure Limits)
• Poland
  • NDN (najwyższe dopuszczalne natężenie)
• Russia
  • ПДК (предельно допустимая концентрация)