The 26-member Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC) has formally requested the Occupational Safety and Health Administration revise the Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica – Specified Exposure Control Methods standard (silica rule), thereby expanding compliance options and recognizing sub-threshold dust levels typical of masonry sawing and mortar mixing.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration outlined initial enforcement protocol of its revised standard, Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for General Industry and Maritime, most provisions of became enforceable in June. The standard establishes a new eight-hour time-weighted average permissible exposure limit and action level, plus associated ancillary requirements.
Read MoreSource: Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA has outlined initial enforcement protocol of its revised standard, Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for General Industry and Maritime, most provisions of which become enforceable on June 23. The standard establishes a new eight-hour time-weighted average permissible exposure limit and action level, plus associated ancillary requirements.
Read MoreThis month marks the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s launch of the Injury Tracking Application (ITA), a web-based form allowing employers to electronically submit injury and illness data from their 2016 Form 300A. The agency published a notice of proposed rulemaking in June to extend the data submission deadline to December, affording affected entities sufficient time to familiarize the electronic reporting system and the Trump Administration an opportunity to review employers’ new requirements.
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration has moved the target for the construction industry to comply with the revised respirable crystalline silica exposure standard from June 23 to September 23, citing a need to conduct additional outreach and provide educational materials and guidance due to the unique nature of employer requirements. The standard reduces the worker exposure threshold from 250 to 50 micrograms of silica dust.
Read MoreSources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Mason Contractors Association of America, Algonquin, Ill.; CP staff
OSHA has moved the target for the construction industry to comply with the revised respirable crystalline silica exposure standard from June 23 to September 23, citing a need to conduct additional outreach and provide educational materials and guidance due to the unique nature of employer requirements.
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders & Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
The ABC-led Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC) recently requested the Department of Labor delay enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s final rule on silica exposure, effective for construction employers on June 23, 2017, and general industry employers a year later.
Read MoreSources: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill.; CP staff
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear all challenges to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s tightening of the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica. Among them are petitions for review construction and allied materials interests filed in U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and 11th Circuits. A deadline for such petitions is May 24.
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), Washington, D.C.; National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Alexandria, Va.; CP staff
Seven national construction organizations, led by ABC, AGC and ARTBA, plan to join eight state affiliates petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s final rule on crystalline silica exposure. Released in late March, it sets a threshold of 50-micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour shift, compared to a longstanding 250-microgram level for the construction industry.
Read MoreThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed standards covering crystalline silica will cost contractors and their suppliers $5 billion per year—nearly $4.5 billion above estimates agency officials indicated in September 2013, when they outlined a new permissible exposure limit (PEL) for general workplaces and construction sites.
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