Silica

A top OSHA official says the agency's regulatory initiatives to reduce exposures to crystalline silica, tackle hazards from confined spaces in construction, put in place an online injury recordkeeping system, and help prevent slips, trips and falls on working surfaces are among the major rules that OSHA is most intent on trying to finish in the waning years of the Obama administration.

The length of time it could still take for OSHA regulators to pore over the massive trove of documents related to their long-proposed rule to reduce exposures to crystalline silica dust in general industry and construction – with an analysis not wrapping up until at least next spring, they say – means it could be nearly impossible for the agency to finish the rule before President Obama leaves office, considering the Republican takeover of Congress, Washington insiders say.

The Republican takeover of the Senate likely foretells huge new difficulties for OSHA's regulatory and enforcement agenda, with one prediction especially dire for the agency: that the GOP will almost certainly try to obstruct, or even dash altogether, longtime efforts to issue a rule clamping down on crystalline silica exposures, Washington sources say.

OSHA is “determined” to finalize new regulations before the end of the Obama administration that lower exposure limits and put practices in place to control crystalline silica dust, agency chief David Michaels said Monday.

OSHA regulatory experts who are closely watching the agency's gradual progress on a complex new rule to tamp down on worker exposures to crystalline silica think it could take nine months to a year or even longer for OSHA to finish drafting and send to the White House budget office a final rule -- and the effort could stretch even to the last days of President Obama's term, informed sources tell Inside OSHA Online.

A key Washington advocacy group for stronger safety and health protections is holding up OSHA's proposed rule tackling crystalline silica exposures as one of 10 key federal rulemakings that the Obama administration should complete as the rules would purportedly not only save lives but carry greater net benefits than costs.

OSHA chief David Michaels put two related regulatory concerns -- a pending rule to tighten controls on crystalline silica dust and the agency's worry about antiquated chemical permissible exposure limits -- at the centerpiece of a push on Friday (April 25) for tougher OSHA protections ahead of Workers Memorial Day, April 28, sounding alarms about what he calls a host of “silent killers” rampant in the workplace.

OSHA is making the case for a much stricter standard on respirable crystalline silica by forming an alliance with several groups of occupational health experts in the Atlanta region -- a partnership designed to provide construction employers and workers with guidance and training to prevent overexposure to the toxic dust generated in some building activities.

Safety and health activists, in pressing for a new OSHA rule cutting down on worker exposures to crystalline silica dust across the spectrum of both large and small U.S. businesses, have tapped into a long-simmering source of grievance with the federal regulatory process: that agencies often rely heavily on the Small Business Administration's (SBA) expansive view of what constitutes a small entity and as a result over-estimate rules' impact on small businesses.

NIOSH officials say a multi-stakeholder partnership involving industry, union and government experts on respirable crystalline silica has evaluated a range of engineering controls in field studies that are effective at keeping exposures to the toxic dust during road milling below the research agency's 50-microgram recommended exposure limit (REL) for silica dust – a level mirroring the compulsory exposure cap in OSHA's planned silica rule – and suggest use of the developed controls could obviate a need for respirator use over full shifts in road milling operations.