“This new, lower limit can be achieved using common sense, practical controls – wetting it down, turn the water on, turn the vac on,” Perez said. OSHA created the table in response to small construction employers’ claims that measurement is expensive and difficult, agency administrator David Michaels said during the press conference, adding that construction employers can avoid measuring by following the table’s principles. Allowing employers to have enough time to satisfy requirements by spacing out compliance dates.Offering a table of specified controls that construction employers can follow for “greater certainty and ease of compliance” without monitoring exposure.Mandating that employers use engineering controls and work practices to restrict worker exposure, bar access to high-exposure sites, supply respiratory protection when controls cannot curb exposures to the PEL, train employees, and offer medical exams to highly exposed workers.OSHA presents the rule as two standards – one for general industry and maritime and the other for construction. The new rule covers engineering controls, protective clothing, medical surveillance and other issues. A good government also adapts, even if it’s long overdue.” “In the meantime, the industry has changed, technology has progressed, businesses have innovated. “Unfortunately, it has taken over 40 years for the politics to catch up with the science,” Perez said at a press conference following the announcement. OSHA’s new PEL is half the previous limit for general industry and 5 times lower than the previous limit for construction. The new permissible exposure limit for respirable crystalline silica – 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged during an 8-hour shift – equals what NIOSH recommended in 1974. When suffering from silicosis, the lungs become scarred, affecting breathing.Ī NIOSH study in 2015 stated that silicosis deaths have decreased in the last decade, but the condition continues to kill about 100 people per year.Īpproximately 2.3 million workers are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica, including 2 million construction workers and 300,000 workers in foundries and brick manufacturing facilities and at hydraulic fracturing sites, OSHA states. Exposure can occur during tasks such as cutting, sawing and crushing of concrete, brick or rock, when workers inhale particles that can result in lung diseases such as silicosis and lung cancer.
The rule also is intended to help protect against lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease.Ī known human carcinogen, crystalline silica exists in sand, stone, soil, concrete and other materials. After facing regulatory delays, pushback from industry groups, and collection of feedback and testimony, OSHA estimates that the new rule will save more than 600 lives and prevent more than 900 cases of silicosis – an incurable lung disease – each year. The rule marks the agency’s first updated regulation for silica since 1971. Ward’s father was a sandblaster who became short of breath, suffered collapsed lungs and died five years after his diagnosis. The Department of Labor shared a video depicting the story of Tom Ward, a masonry trainer whose father died of silicosis. “I’m sorry it took this long,” Perez said during a March 24 stakeholder event in Bowie, MD. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez was apologetic as he announced that OSHA had released its long-awaited final rule on protecting workers from exposure to respirable crystalline silica.