On July 1, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a batch of 23 newly proposed regulations. The majority of the proposals focus on better alignment with OSHA’s Respiratory Protection Standards, while also removing the medical evaluation requirements for filtering facepiece respirators and loose-fitting powered air-purifying respirators. Many of the proposals would revise some substance-specific respiratory protection requirements to allow the use of different types of respirators and still provide adequate worker protection. Specific substances include asbestos, lead, benzene, formaldehyde, and vinyl chloride.
Among the remaining proposals were a rescission of the construction illumination requirements and a reinterpretation of the General Duty Clause. The former would remove the illumination requirement under the premise that it does not reduce a significant risk to workers. The latter would exclude from enforcement known hazards that are inherent and inseparable from the core nature of a professional activity or performance.
AGC has submitted a request to OSHA to extend the comment period, but we will be sure to submit robust comments in any event. If you have questions about these regulations or would like to highlight a substance-specific proposal that deserves more attention, please reach out to Kevin Cannon.