MANAGING BEST PRACTICES: Making sense of the zeros
For example, how are you going to describe OSHA’s new permissible exposure limit (PEL) and action level for hexavalent chromium (assuming these levels have not been changed from the proposed standard)?
Visual and verbal confusion?
As we increase the numbers to the right of the decimal place, however, visual confusion may be introduced. At a glance, was the action level for hex chrome three or four zeros after the decimal place?
Also, the action level for hex chrome is awkward to say as it appears. We usually wouldn’t want to say that the action level is “point zero, zero, zero five milligrams per cubic meter.â€