Masonry Magazine August 2004 Page. 10
Government Affairs
The Department of Labor's Semi-annual Agenda -
Important Issues for Our Industry
Marian J. Marshall
MCAA, Director of Government Affairs
On June 28th, the Department of Labor published its semi-annual regulatory agenda in the Federal Register. There were several notices of actions OSHA will be taking on several issues that merit your attention. They are as follows:
Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica
OSHA is considering several options for a proposed standard including: a comprehensive standard for general
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Masonry August 2004
industry, construction and maritime; focusing on more specific issues such as modernizing the construction and maritime permissable exposure limits (PELs) or standardizing sampling; and analytical methods to ensure that employers and employees are receiving reliable data on employee exposures. OSHA expects to complete the review of the risk assessment by February 2005. This is very important because the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA) is continuing its efforts to come up with a more reasonable approach to resolve the silica exposure issue.
Hearing Conservation Program for Construction Workers
Last August, OSHA published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to gather information on the extent of noise-induced hearing loss among workers in different trades in the industry, current practices to reduce hearing loss, and additional approaches and protections that could be used to prevent such loss in the future. Since then, a stakeholder meeting was held in Chicago in March and, at the time of this writing, another will be held in Washington, July 21-22, 2004. I will be attending this meeting with an MCAA member who has had some testing done and will make a presentation about it at the meeting. I'll keep you posted on further developments with this standard.
Cranes and Derricks
OSHA is still in negotiated rulemaking for a new standard for various types of hoisting equipment used at construction sites, primarily cranes and derricks. There have been several meetings on this proposal, and the working group has made a lot of progress. At the time of this writing, the next meeting of the Cranes and Derricks Action Committee is July 6-9 in Washington. The major sticking point seems to be over operator certification. OSHA would prefer that contractors and equipment suppliers obtain operator certification from outside sources. The trade associations representing various construction contractors around the country have argued that their safety personnel should be allowed to get certification and then train their own employees. Obviously these are dangerous pieces of equipment to operate and those who do should be knowledgeable. The requirement for outside certification will, however, result in increased costs for the contractor, whether they lease or own, and more time off work for the employees to get trained and tested. It will be interesting to see which approach finally prevails.
OSHA standards generally require that protective equipment be provided and used when necessary to protect employees from hazards that can cause injury, illness or physical harm.
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