OSHA’s Regulatory Priorities

The Secretary’s vision of Good Jobs for Everyone requires a safe and healthy workplace for all workers. OSHA’s regulatory program is designed to help workers and employers identify and control hazards in the workplace and prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities. OSHA’s current regulatory program demonstrates a renewed commitment to worker protection.

OSHA’s major projects to implement the Secretary’s vision are:

Airborne Infectious Diseases
Airborne infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and influenza can be spread from person-to-person. OSHA is interested in protecting the nation’s 13 million healthcare workers from airborne infectious diseases. Healthcare-acquired infections are on the rise and there are also increasing levels of drug-resistant microorganisms in healthcare settings. Most current infection control efforts are intended primarily for patient protection and not for worker protection. In March 2010, OSHA intends to publish a Request for Information to help examine how to improve worker protection from exposure to airborne diseases.

Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements (Musculoskeletal Disorders)
OSHA is proposing to revise its regulation on Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (Recordkeeping) to restore a column on the OSHA 300 Injury and Illness Log that employers will check when recording work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The MSD data from the column will help about 750,000 employers and 40 million workers track injuries at individual workplaces, and improve the Nation’s occupational injury and illness information data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The MSD column was removed from the OSHA 300 Log in 2003. The Agency will issue a proposed rule in January 2010.

Cranes and Derricks
More than 80 workers lose their lives each year in crane-related fatalities. OSHA’s existing rule, which dates back to 1971, is partly based on industry consensus standards that are over 40 years old. On October 9, 2008, OSHA issued a comprehensive proposed revision of the Cranes and Derricks standard. The proposed rule addresses electrocution hazards, crushing and struck-by hazards, overturning, procedures for ensuring that the weight of the load is within the crane’s rated capacity, and ensures that crane operators have the required knowledge and skills by requiring independent verification of operator ability. This year, OSHA completed the public hearing and comment phase of the process and is now analyzing the public’s input and preparing the final rule. OSHA plans to issue the final rule in July 2010.

Crystalline Silica
Inhalation of respirable silica dust can cause lung disease, silicosis and lung cancer. Exposure to airborne silica dust occurs in operations involving cutting, sawing, drilling and crushing of concrete, brick, block and other stone products, and in operations using sand products (e.g., in glass manufacturing and sand blasting). One study estimated that there may be as many as 7,000 new cases of chronic silicosis each year. This rulemaking will update existing permissible exposure limits and establish additional provisions to protect workers from exposures to respirable crystalline silica dust. OSHA plans to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in July 2010.

Combustible Dust
Combustible dust can cause catastrophic explosions like the 2008 disaster at the Imperial Sugar refinery that killed 14 workers and seriously injured dozens more. Deadly combustible dust fires and explosions can be caused by a wide array of materials and processes in a large number of industries. Materials that may form combustible dust include wood, coal, plastics, spice, starch, flour, feed, grain, fertilizer, tobacco, paper, soap, rubber, drugs, dyes, certain textiles, and metals. While a number of OSHA standards address aspects of this hazard, the Agency does not have a comprehensive standard that addresses combustible dust. OSHA is engaged in the early stages of rulemaking to develop a combustible dust standard for general industry. OSHA published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in October 2009 and is preparing to hold stakeholder meetings in December 2009.

Hazard Communication Standard - Global Harmonization System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals
OSHA and other U.S. agencies have been involved in a long-term project to negotiate a globally harmonized approach to informing workers about chemical hazards. The result is the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). OSHA is revising its Hazard Communication Standard to make it consistent with the GHS. The new standard will include more specific requirements for hazard classification, as well as standardized label components which will provide consistent information and definitions for hazardous chemicals and a standard approach to conveying information on material safety data sheets. On September 30, OSHA published the proposal and is preparing for hearings in March 2010.

Beryllium
Beryllium is a lightweight metal that has a wide variety of applications, including aerospace, telecommunications and defense applications. Chronic beryllium disease occurs when people inhale beryllium dust or fumes and can take anywhere from a few months to 30 years to develop. The disease is caused by an immune system reaction to beryllium metal, and causes symptoms such as persistent coughing, difficulty breathing upon physical exertion, fatigue, chest and joint pain, weight loss, and fevers. OSHA is developing a rule that would update the Permissible Exposure Limit and establish additional provisions to protect exposed workers. Currently, the Agency is preparing to conduct a peer review of the health effects and risk assessments and plans on initiating the peer review in March 2010.

Diacetyl
Employee exposure to diacetyl causes obstructive airway disease, including the disabling and sometimes fatal lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn lung.” This rulemaking will establish a Permissible Exposure Limit as well as additional provisions to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl. OSHA held a stakeholder meeting on diacetyl in 2007 and completed the small business review panel report in July 2009. OSHA is currently working on the proposed regulatory text and developing the health, risk and feasibility analysis. The Agency plans to initiate a peer review of the health effects and risk assessments in October 2010.

Walking / Working Surfaces - Subparts D & I
This proposed standard will update OSHA’s rules covering slip, trip and fall hazards and establish requirements for personal fall protection systems. The rule affects almost every non-construction worker in the United States. This is an important rulemaking because it addresses hazards that result in numerous deaths and thousands of injuries every year. The proposal is expected to prevent 20 workplace fatalities per year and over 3,500 injuries serious enough to result in days away from work. The Agency plans to issue a proposal in March 2010.

In general, health care management emphasizes the prevention of impairment and disability through early detection, prompt treatment, and timely recovery. Medical management responsibilities fall on employers, employees, and health care professionals (HCPs). A medical management program can help to either eliminate or substantially reduce the risk of development of ergonomics-related problems and symptoms through early identification and treatment.

Musculoskeletal disorders are caused or aggravated by repetitive motions, forceful exertions, vibration, mechanical compression (hard and sharp edges), and sustained or awkward postures that occur over extended periods of time. MSDs can affect nearly all tissues, the nerves, tendons, tendon sheaths, and muscles, with the upper extremities being the most frequently affected. These injuries range from disorders of the back, the neck, the arms and legs, or the shoulders and involve strains, sprains, or tissue inflammation, and dislocation.

Workers suffering from MSDs may experience less strength for gripping, less range of motion, loss of muscle function, and inability to do everyday tasks. These painful and sometimes crippling injuries develop gradually over periods of weeks, months, and years as the result of the repeated actions required to perform their jobs.

Awareness is the key to preventing serious MSD injuries. It is important for employers and employees alike to know the signs and symptoms of MSDs. These signs and symptoms are often ignored, because they seem slight at first and go away when the employee is not at work. However, as time goes on, the symptoms increase and last longer until finally it’s impossible to perform simple tasks such as holding a drinking glass or keyboarding. Early intervention is essential to recovery.

That’s why it’s important to train employees about MSD signs and symptoms and encourage them to report symptoms as soon as they become aware of them. They also need to understand what may happen if they continue to perform their regular job and don’t report the symptoms. Early reporting is essential to lessen the severity of the injury. The longer warning signs are ignored, the more damage is done, the longer recovery takes, and in some cases, the damage can’t be repaired.

Signs and Symptoms

The presence of MSD signs and/or symptoms is usually the first indication that an employee may be developing an MSD. The signs are objective physical findings that an MSD may be developing. The symptoms, on the other hand, are physical indications that an employee may be developing an MSD.

Symptoms can vary in severity, depending on the amount of exposure to MSD hazards and often appear gradually, for example, as muscle fatigue or pain at work that disappears during rest. Usually symptoms become more severe as exposure continues. If the employee continues to be exposed, symptoms may increase to the point that they interfere with performing the job. Finally, pain may become so severe that the employee is unable to perform physical work activities).

Signs that may indicate an MSD include deformity, decreased grip strength, decreased range of motion, and loss of function. Common symptoms of MSDs include:

• Painful joints,
• Pain, tingling, or numbness in the hands or feet,
• Shooting or stabbing pains in the arms or legs,
• Swelling or inflammation,
• Burning sensation,
• Pain in wrists, shoulders, forearms, or knees,
• Fingers or toes turning white,
• Back or neck pain, and
• Stiffness

Strains and sprains from manual materials handling are significant causes of workplace injury. Although lifting, placing, carrying, holding, and lowering are involved in manual materials handling (the principal cause of compensable work injuries), Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that four out of five of these injuries were to the lower back, and that three out of four occurred while the employee was lifting an object.

Management and workers should both be involved with analyzing and assessing manual materials handling job tasks for risk of injury. When a manual materials handling task has been assessed as a risk, the first control option should be redesign (i.e., redesigning the task so that the risk is completely eliminated). If this is not possible, the risk should be reduced through the use of mechanical aids and training.

(more…)

The BIG show is almost here.   The National Safety Council’s Congress & Expo is scheduled for October 15, 16, & 17 in Chicago.  This is the largest Safety & Health expo in the world.  There will be about 140 educational sessions, 32 professional development seminars, and over 800 exhibitors.  Many companies send their safety teams to attend the educational seminars and then have their annual safety meeting afterwards.  It is also a great place to network and look for jobs.  My favorite part has always been the people I have met.  Safety and Health professionals from all over the world.  Click here for a link to the keynote speakers. 

If you have the opportunity, come and check it out, you won’t be sorry.

IN an effort to help prevent injuries, illnesses and property damage, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) offers the following safety tips for businesses to use following a disaster. Although there is no one-size-fits-all program, these tips may help. First, businesses should do a hazard evaluation and assessment performed by a safety professional. Please note the following tips suggested to be done following a catastrophe such as a hurricane:

Structural Security: Have the structural integrity of the building or facility validated by qualified professionals before anyone enters the facility.

Safe Entry: Contact the proper government agencies to get approval to resume occupancy of the building. Do not enter a facility or building unless the proper clearances have been attained.

Cleanup Safety: Implement your cleanup and business resumption processes in a safe and healthful manner. You will accomplish nothing if your employees are injured or killed during the post-disaster phase-in period. Provide training in proper selection and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for your employees and yourself such as eyewear, gloves and dust masks/respirators for cleaning, and where appropriate in other operations.

Air Quality Assessment: Make sure the atmosphere in the workplace environment is tested for asbestos and other chemical/toxic agents. Air quality is an issue businesses may wish to pay careful attention to when restarting business operations.

Ventilation: Have vents checked to assure that water heaters and gas furnaces are clear and operable. Dust and debris can stop or impede airflow decreasing its quality and healthfulness. Safely start up heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which include prior inspection of lines before energizing and pressurizing of the systems. Test your systems now after inspection or have a qualified specialist do so. Blow cold air through HVAC systems first, as opposed to warm air, as it will help prevent the growth of mold in duct systems.

Interior, Exterior Exposures: For interior spaces, ensure no wall or ceiling materials are in danger of falling. If such exposures do exist, the work environment is not ready for occupancy. Check for cracked windows and outside building materials, as these could fall onto pedestrians at any time — now and in the future.

Protection Equipment: For fire and smoke alarms it is important to assure that these have been cleaned and tested before allowing occupancy of the building. If such systems are wired into other systems, ensure that they are still compatible and work in an efficient and effective manner. Thorough inspection of firefighting systems such as sprinkler and chemical equipment functions is a must do item.

Electrical Safety: Have checks made of electrical systems, computer cables and telecommunications’ equipment to ensure that they are still safe and there is no danger of exposure to electricity. Wiring inspections should be conducted from the outside in to ensure all wiring and connections are not in danger of shorting out due to water damage from rain or fire-fighting efforts.

Use Existing Federal Guidelines: Utilize existing start-up guidance materials provided by government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), http://www.fema.gov, and NIOSH, http://www.cdc.gov/niosh.

Health/Sanitation Issues: The general facility sanitation systems with the facility should be inspected and tested to guard against potential employee exposure to toxic agents. Food sanitation should also be an issue. Any unused foodstuffs should be discarded. If the workspace has a kitchen, inspect oven hoods and other ventilation devices to ensure they are not clogged and are working efficiently.

Office Furniture: Inspect the furniture to ensure it can withstand expected loads and usages. Ensure that binder bins (storage devices screwed or bolted to railing systems on walls and panels) have not become unstable due to water damage or shaking due to explosions. Inspect office equipment to ensure it is level, stable, and cannot tip over.

Lighting: Make sure there are adequate illumination levels for employees. Emergency lighting should be checked to ensure it operates and functions in the correct manner.

Emergency Planning: Ensure that there is a clear path of egress for the emergency evacuation of employees, that the fire extinguishers are still operable and that checks for damage and serviceability are made to see if any fire extinguishers’ facilities were used during the disaster. If damage is found, they should be replaced immediately.

Solid/Hazardous Waste Removal: Broken glass, debris or other materials with cutting edges should be safely gathered and disposed immediately. Ensure that such materials can be disposed of before collection to avoid creating even bigger hazards for both employees and the public. Solid waste disposal will be an issue, especially if hazardous waste is involved. Evaluate waste disposal issues prior to beginning clean-up operations to ensure it can be properly disposed of. ASSE’s free “Hazardous Materials Safety Information Guide” has key info on this and is available by contacting customerservice@asse.org.

Power Checks: If there is no access to electricity on the site, do not use fueled generators or heaters indoors. Ensure that there are no gas and sewer leaks in your facility. You will need to check with your local utilities for information regarding power, gas, water, and sewer usage.

Check Mainframes: If your facility has mainframe computer applications, see that lines and cabling for chiller systems are checked to avoid chemical leak out.

Emergency Procedures: Create a new emergency plan and distribute it to employees as soon as they return to work. In case of emergency, designate a place for employees to gather once out of the building or a phone number they should call following the emergency so that all can be accounted for. Frequently update the emergency contact list of names and phone numbers.

Machine Inspections: Inspect the condition of drain, fill, plumbing and hydraulic lines on processes and machines. It would be prudent to have plumbing lines evaluated and tested in order to detect any hazardous gases.

Surfaces: Make sure flooring surfaces are acceptable and free from possible slips, trips and falls — the second leading cause of on-the-job deaths in the United States. ANSI standard A1264 - protection of floor and wall openings is a good starting point.

Workers who lift for a living need to take longer or more frequent breaks than they now do to avoid back injury, a new study from Ohio State University recommends.

The study also suggests that people who are new on the job need to take breaks even more often than experienced workers, and that the risk of injury is higher at the end of a work shift.

People who participated in the study lifted boxes onto conveyor belts for eight hours, while researchers measured the amount of oxygen that was reaching the muscles in their lower back.

The oxygen level indicated how hard the muscles were working and whether they were becoming fatigued, explained William Marras, professor of industrial welding and systems engineering at Ohio State. His research and others’ has found that muscle fatigue is linked to back injury.

The study, which appeared in a recent issue of the journal Clinical Biomechanics, is the first to examine what happens to muscle oxygenation over a full workday, the researchers said. (more…)

JANUARY 2007        
January 1 - 31 National Radon Action Month National Safety Council Kristin Marstiller
202-293-2270 ext. 469  Radon Fact Sheet
FEBRUARY 2007        
February 1 - 28 American Heart Month American Heart Association   www.americanheart.org 
February 1 - 28 Save Your Vision Month American Academy of Ophthalmology  John Paine
415-561-8525  www.aao.org 
February 11-17 National Child Passenger Safety Week National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Tina Foley
202-366-9550 www.nhtsa.gov 
MARCH 2007        
March 18-24 National Poison Prevention Week U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission  Kim Dulic
301-504-7908  
APRIL 2007        
April 1 - 30 Sports Eye Safety Month American Academy of Ophthalmology  John Paine
415-561-8525  www.aao.org
April 1- 7 National Workzone Awareness Week Federal Highway Administration   www.fhwa.dot.gov
April 2 - 8 National Public Health Week American Public Health Association Lakitia Mayo
202-777-2515  www.apha.org
April 8 World Health Day WHO Regional Office for the Americas 202-974-3156  World-Health-Day
April 22 - 28 National Window Safety Week Window Safety Task Force  Janice Charletta
847-303-5859 x230  Window Safety
April 22 - 28 National Playground Safety Week   Donna Mokricky
800-554-7529  www.uni.edu/playground 
April 28 Workers’ Memorial Day American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)    www.afl-cio.org 
April 30 - May 6 National SAFE Kids Week National SAFE Kids Campaign  Suzanne Morton
202-662-4476 www.safekids.org 
MAY 2007        
May 1 - 31 National Electrical Safety Month National Electrical Safety Foundation  Michael Clendenin
703-841-3296 www.electrical-safety.org 
May 6 - 12  North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSH) American Society of Safety Engineers Diane Hurns
847-768-3413 www.asse.org 
May 6 Occupational Safety and Health Professionals Day American Society of Safety Engineers Diane Hurns
847-768-3413 www.asse.org 
May 19 - 25 National Safe Boating Week National Safe Boating Council  Virgil Chambers
703-361-4294  www.safeboatingcouncil.org 
May 20 - 26 National Emergency Medical Services Week American College of Emergency Physicians  Denise Fechner
800-798-1822 x326  www.acep.org 
May 21 - 28 Buckle Up America National Highway Traffic Safety Administration   www.nhtsa.dot.gov 
May 21 - June 3 Click It or Ticket Mobilization Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign & National Highway Traffic Safety Administration   www.nhtsa.dot.gov 
JUNE 2007        
June 1 - 30 National Safety Month National Safety Council 630-775-2160  National Safety Month 
AUGUST 2007        
August 1 - 31 Cataract Awareness Month 
 
SEPTEMBER 2007        
September 1 - 30 National Preparedness Month U.S. Department of Homeland Security   
September 16 - 27  National Farm Safety and Health Week  National Safety Council   National Farm Safety and Health Week
OCTOBER 2007        
October 1 - 31 Eye Injury Prevention Month American Academy of Ophthalmology John Paine
415-561-8525 www.aao.org 
October 14 - 20 National Radon Action Week National Safety Council Kristin Marstiller
202-293-2270 ext. 469  Radon Fact Sheet