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.

OSHA plans to require quarterly electronic reporting of injuries and illnesses at companies with 250 or more workers under a proposed rule that amounts to a revolutionary change in the way OSHA gathers data, though officials say the shift does not alter employers' basic recordkeeping duties.

OSHA plans to unveil as soon as Thursday (Nov. 7) a proposed rule aimed at modernizing injury and illness recordkeeping requirements under the OSH Act, a source familiar with OSHA's plans regarding the rulemaking tells Inside OSHA Online.

OSHA has agreed to extend until Jan. 27, 2014, the public comment period on its proposed crystalline silica rule, agreeing to industry and GOP lawmakers' demands for a lengthier review.

A Washington pro-regulatory non-profit praises OSHA for offering an alternative way to look at the silica rule's impact on small businesses that encompasses employers with fewer than 20 workers, as industry clings onto the Small Business Administration's (SBA) much broader definition of small entities.

Two key House Republicans who oversee worker safety and health issues are urging Labor Secretary Tom Perez, in a letter obtained by Inside OSHA Online, to extend by 90 days the official comment period on OSHA's recently unveiled regulatory plan to reduce crystalline silica hazards.

The building sector argues that the size of the scientific and analytical record that OSHA has amassed to back up the need for control measures in its proposed rule to cut crystalline silica exposures is so huge that it will take much longer than the current 90-day comment period to evaluate and offer feedback on the plan.

Worker safety and environmental advocates in New Jersey are voicing deep concerns about the effectiveness of the state government's rollout of rules intended to require so-called “inherently safer technology” (IST) in chemical plants across the densely populated state, echoing calls at the federal level for rules mandating employers seek alternatives to cut the risks involved in chemicals and processes currently in use.