Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials announced last month plans to issue a comprehensive checklist, Portland Cement Inspection Procedures, providing enforcement specifics for compliance officers to follow at all construction sites where employees are working with portland cement. The document stems from an agreement with the AFL-CIO Building Construction Trades Department, Laborers' International Union of North America, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, settling a challenge to OSHA's hexavalent chromium standard (BCTD, et al., v. OSHA, Case No. 06-2433 (3d Cir.)).

In a final rule, effective May 2006, for managing workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium, the agency exempted portland cement and concrete production, plus related construction activities. OSHA determined that the compound, exposure to which is linked to lung cancer, is present in portland cement at levels sufficiently low to justify exclusion in the final rule. Supporting the agency's conclusion were documents and input provided by Portland Cement Association, National Concrete Masonry Association, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, and the RMC Research & Education Foundation.

Portland Cement Inspection Procedures will explain how existing OSHA standards and requirements (air contaminants, personal protective equipment, sanitation, hazard communication and recordkeeping) apply to operations involving portland cement, thus consolidating all applicable provisions in a single inspection checklist.