Study on Potential of Occupational Exposure Limits Harmonization in ASEAN-5 Countries

Abstract

Five countries within the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN-5), which consists of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Philippines, use a variety of chemicals in their industries and set Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) as a regulation or reference instrument to control chemical. This study is aimed to assess the potential of OEL harmonization amongst ASEAN-5 since there is extensive labor exchange between South East Asian Region. Seven OELs (three lists from Indonesia) were compared between each other; and also, with TLV ACGIH 2016 and PEL OSHA as references. The geometric similarity measure (GSM) and non-metric multidimensional scaling plots were used for OEL similarities evaluation. There were a total of 713 chemical substances in the list being compared; 40 common substances that were available in all OEL lists; and 73 unique substances that appear only in 1 list of OEL.In non-metric multidimensional scaling plots, it was found that 5 OEL have close similarities with both TLV ACGIH 2016 and PEL OSHA. Thailand-OEL and Regulation of Ministry of Health of Indonesia No. 70 of Year 2016 showed dissimilarity with TLV ACGIH 2016 and PEL OSHA 2016 due to having lesser number of substances. There was a potential of OEL harmonization within ASEAN-5 since some similarities in listed substances and concentration limit were found.