Changing the Rules

Another facility-related hazard being targeted by OSHA is industrial flooring and other walking and/or working surfaces. OSHA plans to update rules for slip, trip and fall hazards and establish requirements for personal fall protection systems. The proposal, set for introduction in March, affects “almost every non-construction worker in the United States,” according to OSHA.

OSHA’s proposal is separate from a new ANSI standard on industrial floors, “Test Method for Measuring Wet SCOF of Common Hard-Surface Floor Materials.” (See New Flooring Standard Gets Traction for details.)

MSDs and GHS
Ergonomics is back on OSHA’s watch list in 2010 with an item on the regulatory agenda about recording work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). OSHA plans to restore a column on its 300 injury and illness log that had been removed in 2003. Employers will use the column to report work-related MSDs.

During the December Web chat, OSHA’s Barab addressed concerns from the industry that updating the MSD recording requirement is the first step toward a full-blown ergonomics standard.

Barab insists that is not the case. “This is not a prelude to a broader ergonomics standard,” Barab states in the transcript. “No, we are simply putting the MSD column back on the OSHA log as was originally intended in the 2001 issuance of OSHA’s recordkeeping standard. MSDs continue to be a major problem for American workers, but at this time, OSHA has no plans for regulatory activity.”

The regulatory agenda also references OSHA’s previously announced plan to align the hazard communication standard (HCS) with provisions of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

The current HCS requires all employers to have a hazard communication program (HCP) for workers exposed to hazardous chemicals. An HCP includes container labels, safety data sheets and employee training, among other safety measures.

Under GHS, labels would include signal words, pictograms and hazard and precautionary statements. Information on safety data sheets would be presented in a designated order.

“Following the GHS approach will increase workplace safety, facilitate international trade in chemicals and generate cost savings from production efficiencies for firms that manufacture and use hazardous chemicals,” Barab says.

While many companies are sure to feel the strain as the new regulatory climate bears down, others will take the opportunity to comment on the pending actions and offer suggestions that might benefit both employer and employee.

As Cass R. Sunstein, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote in the preamble to the regulatory plan, “Scientific integrity is critically important, in the sense that regulators cannot decide how to proceed without having a sense of what is known and what remains uncertain.… Some regulations are burdensome and some are not. Some regulations have unintended bad consequences; others have unintended good consequences.”