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DCL
Action level denotes the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a system must follow. Such action levels are used, [url='http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/actionlevel.html',or example[/url] by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to express a health or physical hazard. They indicate "the level of a harmful or toxic substance/activity which requires medical surveillance, increased industrial hygiene monitoring, or biological monitoring."
In general, action levels are set at "one half of the permissible exposure limit (PEL), but the actual level may vary from standard to standard." The term can also refer to "levels recommended by EPA for enforcement by Food and Drug Administration and USDA when pesticide residues occur in food or feed commodities for reasons other than the direct application of the pesticide."
Action levels are not the same as "tolerances" which are "established for residues occurring as a direct result of proper usage, action levels are set for inadvertent residues resulting from previous legal use or accidental contamination."
