Abstract
This report introduces a new method for comparing the performance of industrial hygiene decision criteria and provides equations which generalize the NIOSH action-level concepts to permit direct comparison between four different sets of decision thresholds. Because of the requirement for 95% confidence, neither the Permissible Exposure Limit Action Level (Acute Hazards) nor the Average Exposure Limit Action Level (Chronic Hazards) are likely to make a decision about the acceptability of real workplaces. Both the Legal Action Level and the OSHA Compliance Criteria do make such decisions. On the basis of one sample, OSHA is much more lenient than the Legal Action Level. However, the probability of a citation increases dramatically with the number of statistically independent samples an OSHA Compliance Officer is able to collect.