On March 17, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it would extend the comment period to October 9 on a Request for Information (RFI) on chemical management and permissible exposure limits in the workplace.
The original RFI was issued on October 10, 2014, requesting stakeholders to offer input on more effective and efficient approaches to combat workplace conditions where employees are exposed to harmful chemicals. OSHA received many requests from stakeholders to extend the deadline so they could conduct more in-depth research and subsequently offer more well-informed responses to the questions posed in the RFI.
RFI Aims to Improve Worker Safety
OSHA created the RFI as a way to launch a national dialogue on preventing occupational illness by improving the way workers interact with hazardous chemicals.
“The purpose of this dialogue is to engage stakeholders as to the best ways for the Agency to help employers and employees devise and implement risk management strategies to reduce or eliminate exposures to hazardous chemicals in the 21st century workplace environment,” OSHA stated. “The Agency is seeking engagement with the public about possible modifications to existing risk assessment and feasibility analysis, and alternative approaches for managing chemical exposures, including hazard banding, task-based approaches, and informed substitution.”
OSHA’s PELs — regulatory limits on the amount or concentration of a substance in the air designed to protect workers against the adverse health effects of exposure to hazardous substances — are currently outdated. In fact, 95% of them, covering less than 500 chemicals, have not been updated since their initial adoption in 1971. The current PELs include only a small portion of the tens of thousands of chemicals used in the workplace — many of which are thought to be dangerous. The Agency must devote substantial resources to issue new exposure limits or update existing workplace exposure limits, as courts have strict requirements in place for each proposed PEL.
“Many of our chemical exposure standards are dangerously out of date and do not adequately protect workers,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “While we will continue to work on updating our workplace exposure limits, we are asking public health experts, chemical manufacturers, employers, unions and others committed to preventing workplace illnesses to help us identify new approaches to address chemical hazards.”
Comments can be submitted online, the Federal eRulemaking Portal, by mail or facsimile.
Searching for a dynamic engineer to add to your team? Contact Premium Staffing. We understand the importance of finding an engineer who is a perfect fit, so we’ll only present you with the top candidates for the job.