Have you ever heard your parents tell you not to get too close to a fire because it's hot and can hurt you? Well, in the same way, some materials at work can also be harmful if you breathe them in or touch them too much.
Now, people who are in charge of making sure we're safe at work, such as the government or our bosses, need a way to decide how much of these materials we can safely come in contact with without getting sick or hurt. This is called an occupational exposure limit (OEL).
An OEL is like a safety rulebook that tells us how much of a harmful material we are allowed to come in contact with while doing our jobs. For example, if the OEL for a chemical is 10 parts per million (ppm), it means we can breathe in up to 10 parts of that chemical for every million parts of air we breathe.
These limits are set by experts who study the harmful effects of different materials and determine what level of exposure is safe. They take into account things like how toxic a material is, how long we are exposed to it, and how we come into contact with it (through breathing, skin contact, or swallowing).
It's important to follow OELs to keep ourselves safe at work. If we are exposed to too much of a harmful material, we can get sick, have trouble breathing, or even get cancer. So, it's very important that everyone at work - from our bosses to our coworkers - follow these safety rules to keep us healthy and safe.