What is your company doing about the new Silica standard requirements?
Do You Have a Competent Person Ready for OSHA’s New Silica Rule?
OSHA’s new silica standard for construction has been in effect since June 23, 2016 and has a fast approaching compliance date of June 23, 2017. The standard contains a key requirement for construction employers to designate a “silica competent person” – an individual who is capable of identifying existing and foreseeable respirable crystalline silica hazards in the workplace and who is authorized to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate or minimize them.
This is the first update to the silica standard since the first one was established in 1971, the same year OSHA was formed. Silica dust particles are 100 times smaller than sand granules, and those who breathe in too much can develop illnesses like the incurable and potentially fatal lung disease silicosis, lung cancer, kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Those employers not in compliance with the new rule could be hit with an OSHA fine of $12,675 for a serious or other-than-serious violation; $12,675 per day past the abatement date for a failure-to-abate violation and $126,749 for a repeated or willful violation.
“The competent person is a crucial part of protecting workers and complying with the new standard,” says LIUNA General Secretary-Treasurer and LHSFNA Labor Co-Chairman Armand E. Sabitoni. “These designated workers and supervisors are tasked with key responsibilities that will help ensure their fellow workers are not exposed to harmful levels of silica.”
Silica Rule is in effect for general industry. Have you written your silica exposure plan?
For all operations in general industry and maritime, other than hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry:
Employers are required to comply with all obligations of the standard, with the exception of the action level trigger for medical surveillance, by June 23, 2018.
Employers are required to offer medical examinations to employees exposed above the PEL for 30 or more days a year beginning on June 23, 2018.
Employers are required to offer medical examinations to employees exposed at or above the action level for 30 or more days a year beginning on June 23, 2020.
Regardless of which exposure control method is used, all construction employers covered by the standard are required to:
Establish and implement a written exposure control plan that identifies tasks that involve exposure and methods used to protect workers, including procedures to restrict access to work areas where high exposures may occur.
Designate a competent person to implement the written exposure control plan. Restrict housekeeping practices that expose workers to silica where feasible alternatives are available.
Offer medical exams-including chest X-rays and lung function tests-every three years for workers who are required by the standard to wear a respirator for 30 or more days per year.
Train workers on work operations that result in silica exposure and ways to limit exposure. Keep records of exposure measurements, objective data, and medical exams.
Construction employers must comply with all requirements of the standard by September 23, 2017, except requirements for laboratory evaluation of exposure samples, which begin on June 23, 2018.
Taken from OSHA's articles about the Silica Standard. Visit www.osha.gov for more information about the silica standard
Author: Deborah Grow, Safety Compliance Specialist, Private Safety Consultant
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