Public Citizen was planning a lawsuit to force the Obama administration's hand on OSHA's long-sought regulatory proposal to clamp down on worker exposures to crystalline silica and probably would have gone forward with the suit if the agency had not recently issued a proposed rule tackling the issue, the consumer interest group's president tells Inside OSHA Online in an exclusive interview.
A Louisiana petrochemical plant has been cited for OSHA safety procedure violations following a deadly blast earlier this year that drew national attention to chemical facility safety and security, including one “willful” citation by the federal agency -- a development that could also reflect intensifying pressure by OSHA on the industry through enforcement tools as well as a growing focus on process safety management (PSM).
Just a few straightforward lines OSHA slipped into an otherwise routine set of guidelines for written feedback on the agency's recently unveiled regulatory proposal on silica hazards has led to the rulemaking equivalent of a firestorm, with industry furious that OSHA is asking stakeholders with technical comments to voluntarily disclose the funding sources and by implication, who has a financial stake in the policies they are advocating.
OSHA is eying the possibility of making several major changes to its process safety management (PSM) standard, designed to protect workers from catastrophic events inside chemical plants, and process safety enforcement policies, according to sources who say the agency's thinking may be reflected in a series of questions OSHA is asking about how regulators could improve the PSM and related standards.
OSHA released its long-awaited proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures on Friday (Aug. 23), rolling out a comprehensive regulation that if eventually adopted would cut the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter and take broad measures to limit worker exposures across industries.
The proposed rule is split between two separate standards -- one for general industry and maritime, and the other for construction.
Editor's note: The following is a letter to the editor from industry attorney Lawrence Halprin of Keller and Heckman regarding OSHA's proposed silica rule. Inside OSHA Online invites reader comments on this subject, which may be sent to ccole@iwpnews.com.
OSHA is forcefully pushing back against Republican calls on Capitol Hill for a second small business review of the agency's planned crystalline silica rule, with a top agency official telling Inside OSHA Online the agency did a “very thorough panel” in the early 2000s and afterward fully addressed small business concerns in the proposed rule unveiled this summer.
The American Medical Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday (Nov. 19) officially endorsed OSHA's recently released proposal to toughen regulations on workplace exposure to crystalline silica, saying the change would lead to a dramatic decline in worker illness and calling the existing permissible exposure limit (PEL) insufficient.
A discussion of OSHA's proposed rule on crystalline silica exposures dominated the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy's September roundtable on labor safety and health issues, according to a new SBA newsletter.
OSHA staff, including Acting Director of Standards and Guidance William Perry, provided a background briefing to the attendees at the roundtable, in which nearly 150 small businesses and their representatives participated.
OSHA’s proposed rule, published in the Federal Register in September, would amend the agency’s existing silica standard by reducing the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter of air (50 mg/m3), calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average. The proposed rule also includes an action level and ancillary provisions for employee protection, such as preferred methods for controlling exposure, respiratory protection, medical surveillance, hazard communication, and recordkeeping (see related story).
The small business advocate notes that OSHA estimates that the proposed rule would affect some 533,000 firms, with about 470,000 identified as small businesses, and 357,000 with fewer than 20 employees.
A national trade group representing silica sand producers is pushing for a comprehensive new crystalline silica rule under which OSHA would mandate a far-reaching set of exposure monitoring and medical surveillance requirements to prevent worker silicosis but not lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) below 100 micrograms per cubic meter, as OSHA would under its newly proposed standards to confront the hazard.