OSHA
On Saturday, September 23, OSHA’s much talked about and controversial new Silica Dust Exposure Limit regulations went into effect. Late last week, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA, Thomas Galassi, released a memorandum that issues a 30 day “grace period” for compliance.
“During the first 30 days of enforcement, OSHA will carefully evaluate good faith efforts taken by employers in their attempts to meet the new construction silica standard. OSHA will render compliance assistance and outreach to assure that covered employers are fully and properly complying with its requirements. Given the novelty of the Table 1 approach, OSHA will pay particular attention to assisting employers in fully and properly implementing the controls in the table. OSHA will assist employers who are making good faith efforts to meet the new requirements to assure understanding and compliance,” Galassi stated in the memo.
In other words, you have to at least try to be in compliance with the new rules to be considered eligible to not be cited. Generally, if you will not be performing air monitoring on your sites, Table 1 requires the use of either the wet method or HEPA vacuum dust collection when dealing with silica containing materials.
For more information regarding the new silica rule, check out our other articles about it by clicking here.
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