Title: short-term exposure limit
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - short-term exposure limit
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.16085
Status: current

Definition
Fifteen-minute time-weighted average (TWA) exposure recommended by ACGIH which should not be exceeded at any time during a workday, even if the \(\pu{8 h}\) TWA is within the threshold limit value: time-weighted average, TLV-TWA.

Note
Workers can be exposed to a maximum of four STEL periods per \(\pu{8 h}\) shift, with at least \(\pu{60 min}\) between exposure periods.

Related Terms
- threshold limit value: time-weighted average: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/16139
- time-weighted average: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/16143

Source
- PAC, 2007, 79, 1153. 'Glossary of terms used in toxicology, 2nd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2007)' on page 1309 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200779071153)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/16085/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/16085/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/16085/xml

Citation: Citation: 'short-term exposure limit' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.16085
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-20T01:43:33+00:00