The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a final rule to better protect workers who are exposed to respirable silica dust. The rule is aimed to curb lung cancer and other diseases by limiting workers’ exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
OSHA estimates that when the final rule on Occupational Exposure to Respirable Silica becomes fully effective, more than 600 lives will be saved per year, and even more new cases of silicosis will be prevented each year. The agency also estimates that the final rule will provide net benefits of about $7.7 billion per year.
The final rule will improve worker protection by the following:
- Reducing the permissible exposure limit for crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour shift.
- Requiring employers to use engineering controls (such as water or ventilation) and work practices to limit worker exposure; provide respiratory protection when controls are not able to limit exposures to the permissible level; limit access to high exposure areas; train workers; and provide medical exams to highly exposed workers.
- Providing greater certainty and ease of compliance to construction employers – including many small employers – by including a table of specified controls they can follow to be in compliance, without having to monitor exposures.
- Staggering compliance dates to ensure employers have sufficient time to meet the requirements, for example, extra time for the hydraulic fracturing industry to install new engineering controls and for all general industry employers to offer medical surveillance to employees exposed between the PEL and 50 micrograms per cubic meter and the action level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
The final rule is written as two standards, one for construction and one for general industry and maritime.
Employers covered by the construction standard have until June 23, 2017 to comply with most requirements. Employers covered by the general industry and maritime standard have until June 23, 2018 to comply with most requirements; additional time is provided to offer medical exams to some workers and for hydraulic fracturing employers to install dust controls to meet the new exposure limit.
More information is available at https://www.osha.gov/silica/