Biological Monitoring Guidance Values

Exposure Indices · Exposure Indices overview

Biological Monitoring Guidance Values (BMGVs) are advisory reference values published by HSE for a subset of substances where biomonitoring is the recommended exposure verification method.

Published BMGVs

HSE publishes BMGVs in EH40 and supporting documents including: urinary MDA (1 µmol/mol creatinine) for MDI; urinary TDA (1 µmol/mol creatinine) for TDI; urinary chromium (10 µmol/mol creatinine end-of-week) for Cr(VI); urinary cobalt (15 nmol/mmol creatinine end-of-week); urinary butan-2-one (70 µmol/l); urinary 1,2- and 1,4-cyclohexanediol (8 mmol/mol creatinine) for cyclohexanone; urinary mercury and urinary lead under CLAW.

Legal status

BMGVs are advisory, not statutory (except where named explicitly under CLAW). HSE inspectors and the courts treat them as the benchmark for adequate control under COSHH regulation 7; exceedance triggers expectation of remedial action.

Where no BMGV exists

Programmes default to ACGIH BEI, then to German BAT or French VLB. A documented internal action level can be defined where no published reference value exists, anchored to a baseline survey of the same workforce under known-good control conditions.