ACGIH Threshold Limit Value for Hand Activity Level

Developed by: American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH)

Description: An assessment of hand and wrist MSD, which involves dividing the Normalized Peak Force by the Hand Activity Level, and comparing this value to two reference values: an Action Limit (AL) and a Threshold Limit Value (TLV). The Normalized Peak Force estimates the maximum effort of a task on a scale from 0 to 10. The Hand Activity Level is a visual estimation of how often someone’s hands are doing something during a workplace task, also from 0 to 10. The Action Limit generally represents the point when you should start taking action to change a task to proactively prevent MSD. The Threshold Limit Value represents the upper limit of what a person can safely expect to be able to do; tasks above the Threshold Limit Value are expected to cause an MSD or other injury. The second page of the resource has more detailed instructions for performing the assessment and some background information to help users interpret it. 

Keywords: hand, wrist, force, activity, action limit, threshold limit value, effort, frequency, injury