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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has announced that it is extending its review period for OSHA's proposed crystalline silica rule. The proposal was received by OMB on February 14, 2011. This extension follows the recent pattern of OMB taking longer than the standard 90 days to review OSHA rules under Executive Order 12866. Notably, last year OMB extended its review of OSHA's proposal to add a separate MSD column on the OSHA 300 Log.
OSHA's proposal to comprehensively regulate crystalline silica in general industry, maritime, and construction could be one of the most significant rulemakings in OSHA's history. Silica, a component of the Earth's crust, is present in a number of industries. Both employer and employee stakeholders have been actively engaged with OSHA during the pre-rulemaking process. Recently, several different groups of stakeholders have met with OMB officials to discuss the proposed rule.
It is unkown what has caused OMB to extend its review of the proposal. Employers should continue to monitor this issue closely, however, and be engaged in the rulemaking process if, or when, OSHA publishes the proposal.
OSHA is launching a nationwide outreach campaign "to raise awareness among workers and employers about the hazards of working outdoors in hot weather." In furtherance of this campaign, OSHA has developed a webpage devoted exclusively to work-related heat illness.
The website provides links to educational resources to inform employers and employees about heat illness and steps to protect workers from the heat. There are also training tools and materials for "vulnerable workers with limited reading skills or who do not speak English as a first language." OSHA also is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on weather service alerts, which will provide worker safety precautions when extreme heat alerts are issued.
It is common for OSHA to reach out to employers and employees at this time of year to alert them to the potential dangers of work in extreme heat conditions. While OSHA does not have a standard dealing directly with heat stress, OSHA could potentially utilize the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act to cite employers for failing to take steps to protect employees from heat-related illness. Employers in warm climates, in particular, should review their policies and practices to ensure that they have plans in place to deal with heat stress at their worksites.
California employers must now conduct an assessment of their workplaces for hazards that may require the use of certain personal protective equipment (PPE) and train employees in the use, care, and limitations of required PPE. The PPE included in the scope of the new rules are eye and face protection, foot protection, head protection, and hand protection. The new standard became effective on April 13, 2011.
The rules were originally proposed in 2010 as a result of an audit conducted by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on the effectiveness of California OSHA’s (CalOSHA) safety and health enforcement and regulatory programs. In preparing responses to the federal audit, CalOSHA realized that it had not adopted equivalent rules to the federal requirements dealing with PPE hazard assessment and training. As a result, it proposed these new requirements to ensure equivalency with federal OSHA in this area – a requirement to operate a “State-plan State” under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Under the new rules, California employers must now assess their workplaces to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of PPE, and if such hazards are present:
Furthermore, employers must document that the hazard assessment has been performed through a written certification that identifies the workplace evaluated, the person certifying that the evaluation has been performed, and the dates of the hazard assessment.
The rules also require that the employer train each employee who is required to use PPE on the following:
Each employee must demonstrate an understanding of this information and will need to be retrained where changes in the workplace render previous training obsolete, changes in the types of PPE to be used render previous training obsolete, or inadequacies in an affected employee’s knowledge or use of assigned PPE indicate that the employee does not have the required competence. As with the hazard assessment, employers are required to certify in writing that their employees have been trained.
California employers must already assess their worksites through the state’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program rule, so this added requirement may be easily incorporated into existing safety and health systems. Nevertheless, all California employers are advised to review the new requirements and their own PPE programs to ensure they are fully compliant.
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