Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica: Possible Revisions
There are 2.3 million people in the U.S. alone that are exposed to silica at their workplace. Silica can be found in materials like sand, stone, concrete, and mortar which are in products such as glass, pottery, ceramics, brick, and artificial stone. High exposure to silica can result in diseases like Silicosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and kidney disease. The action level OSHA established is 25 µg/m3 and the permissible exposure limit is 50 µg/m3.
On March 25, 2016, OSHA made a final decision regarding occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The standard established much needed action levels and permissible exposure limits which are calculated based on an eight-hour time-weighted average. The standard, however, did not establish a medical removal provision and only established medical surveillance provisions. Medical removal provisions are important for OSHA recordkeeping because if an employee meets or exceeds the limits during their medical surveillance, the employee must be removed from work. When an employee is removed from work for a medical condition or after surveillance, it is considered a recordable injury/illness due to an employee accumulating days away from work or restricted work. As of January 2023, there is not an established medical removal provision for crystalline silica, but there is a strong possibility this may change this year.
In the Spring of 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that OSHA failed to explain why a medical removal provision was not included in the 2016 decision. As a result, a meeting to discuss further consideration was created and deliberation is currently scheduled for May 2023. If the change is made, it would have a major impact on industries across the country.
The importance of adding a medical removal provision, from an OSHA recordkeeping and employee health standpoint, is apparent but this doesn’t include a company’s financial and employee and employer relations point of view. Hypothetically, let’s assume that a company’s grinding operation exposes a dozen associates to a level where they are required to be medically removed from work. The grinding operation would need to be halted completely until certain controls have been made to reduce exposure for associates to continue working. Depending on the severity of the exposure, this could take months or even years to install equipment or create a respiratory protection program that reduces or eliminates exposure. This same company would also have to communicate this information to their employees, who may choose to leave due to unhealthy working conditions.
This potential change is one of many examples of why air sampling monitoring is vital to maintain a safe work environment. Silica monitoring should be completed at least on an annual basis or whenever there are process changes that may affect employees’ level of exposure to silica. In most cases, air sampling monitoring for silica can be completed in a single day with results coming back within the same month. Lastly, whether a medical removal provision is added or not in May 2023, there is a strong likelihood one will be established in the future, so getting a head start on monitoring and, if necessary, creating exposure controls will help long term.
Tyler Sandy is a Health and Safety Specialist and consults with clients in the area of worker safety. Tyler's experience includes industrial hygiene services, safety training, RCRA as well as OSHA and EPA compliance. His experience includes working with the packaging industry, railroad, welding, warehouse, food and medical waste, chemical manufacturing, and casting.
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OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements
Preventing workplace injuries and illnesses is always the focus of any company’s health and safety program; however, despite best efforts to eliminate workplace hazards and reduce risk, workplace injuries and illnesses still happen.
In my current position in the private sector and as a former OSHA Compliance Officer, I have provided safety and health consultation to employers in a wide range of industries. In both roles, I have noticed that many employers are not aware of their worker safety compliance obligations. Typical requirements that may be overlooked include injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting, documenting those records with sufficient detail, or submitting required records in a timely manner.
OSHA’s Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses regulation, 29 CFR 1904, provides the compliance obligations for employers for recordable workplace injuries and illnesses. Many employers with more than ten employees are required to keep a record of serious work-related injuries and illnesses. (Certain low-risk industries are exempted). Minor injuries requiring first aid only do not need to be recorded. Visit the following links for more information on these topics:
During my career, I have found that some employers do not record occupational injuries and illnesses altogether. The basic requirement for recording listed in 29 CFR 1904.7(a) states: The employer must record any work-related injury or illness meeting the general recording criteria. That is, if it results in any of the following: death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. Also, if it involves a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, even if it does not result in death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness.
OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Forms
Employers must use the required forms (or forms soliciting equivalent information). OSHA provides the following forms for injury and illness recordkeeping purposes:
Forms 300, 300A, 301 and Instructions PDF Fillable Format
Forms 300, 300A, 301 Excel format (Forms ONLY) Requires Microsoft Excel or equivalent
Recording Details and Following Instructions Required by the Form
In my experience, when an employer has kept injury and illness records, the records lack the detail required and the instructions were not followed. There are numerous examples of this: not classifying the case correctly; entering the wrong information on number of days away from work or days of restricted work; incorrect tallying of injury and illness case totals; or lack of employer representative signature are a few examples commonly mentioned.
Maintaining and Posting Records
The records must be maintained at the worksite for at least five years. Each February through April, employers must post a summary of the injuries and illnesses recorded the previous year. Also, if requested, copies of the records must be provided to current and former employees, or their representatives.
Severe Injury Reporting
Employers must report any worker fatality within 8 hours and any amputation, loss of an eye, or hospitalization of a worker within 24 hours.
Electronic Submission of Records
On many occasions, I’ve noted that an employer has failed to submit injury and illness records to OSHA in a timely manner or not at all. OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) provides a secure website that offers three options for injury and illness data submissions. You can manually enter your data, upload a CSV file to add multiple establishments at the same time, or transmit data electronically via an API (application programming interface).
Who is covered by this reporting requirement?
Only a small fraction of establishments are required to electronically submit their Form 300A data to OSHA. Establishments that meet any of the following criteria DO NOT have to electronically report their information to OSHA. Remember, these criteria apply at the establishment level, not to the firm as a whole.
The establishment's peak employment during the previous calendar year was 19 or fewer, regardless of the establishment's industry.
The establishment's industry is on Appendix A to Subpart B of OSHA’s recordkeeping regulation, regardless of the size of the establishment.
The establishment had a peak employment between 20 and 249 employees during the previous calendar year AND the establishment's industry is NOT on Appendix A to Subpart E of OSHA’s recordkeeping regulation.
What must covered establishments submit?
Covered establishments must electronically submit information from their OSHA Form 300A.
When must covered establishments submit their completed Form 300A?
Establishments must submit the required information by March 2 of the year after the calendar year covered by the forms (for example, by March 2, 2022 for the forms covering calendar year 2021).
If the submission due date of March 2 has passed, establishments that meet the reporting requirements and failed to do so must still report their Form 300A data through the ITA and can do so until December 31.
Does OSHA provide training for the general public on recordkeeping requirements?
Yes. Through its national network of OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers, OSHA offers the OSHA #7845 Recordkeeping Rule Seminar course. This half-day course covers the OSHA requirements for maintaining and posting records of occupational injuries and illnesses, and reporting specific cases to OSHA. Included in the course are hands-on activities associated with completing the OSHA Form 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, OSHA Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and the OSHA Form 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report. To search for specific course locations and dates, please visit the OTI Education Centers searchable schedule.
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Proactive Steps That Can Prevent Workplace Incidents
Most people are familiar with the basic regulatory requirements facilities must meet under their respective reporting regimes. Many of these requirements involve documenting incidents AFTER they occur and then performing risk or root cause analysis to drive potential change in the workplace. There is no doubt these are important steps in creating a safer workplace culture, but what if you could have a safer workplace before waiting for something bad to happen?
This is where the concept of a behavior-based safety program comes into play. Programs like these are setup so that you can identify unsafe conditions and behaviors and perform risk analysis operations on them; thereby eliminating potential accidents before they ever occur.
What would this look like in practice?
Observations
Having a daily observation program in place to monitor workers during the day for five minutes can have a huge impact. A simple observational program can be easily formed and effortlessly repeatable. Those small observational data points can then be combined to provide trends to safety managers to see if there are changes necessary to the safety program.
Checklists
In this instance, employees are provided with a checklist of things to do to operate efficiently and safely in their environment. This can be anything from lockout/tagout procedures, work procedures and/or training manuals for specific equipment operation. Having clear-cut directions simplifies tasks and makes them much safer.
Goal Setting
Establishing identifiable safety goals to work towards can also make your workplace safer. Everyone is familiar with the typical “days without incident goal”, but there are many other achievable victories to be had. Reducing the number of days with PPE infractions is an example. Combining goals with small incentives will eventually save money by helping to reduce incident costs, lower insurance costs, and prevent the loss of productivity.
This may seem like a lot of work to prevent something that may not even happen, but I promise it is worth the time and effort to set up a system to automate these tasks. To help, Cornerstone has built systems that manage these elements and can provide templates and startups to get a new, more proactive safety management system off the ground quickly and easily.
Not only does Cornerstone have the applications to easily manage all this data, but we have the expertise and knowledge behind all our systems to provide insights, offer advice and guide our users in the right direction. All of this combined has saved our customers time, money, and lives. That’s the ultimate end goal of any safety system: to provide a productive work environment for employees and see them all go home at the end of each shift safely. We are proud to provide our clients with the tools and knowledge to help make that happen.
Joshua Sampia is the Director of Product Development. He is responsible for the applications development team at Cornerstone, ranging from web-based and mobile applications to device management for safety and environmental compliance and applicability.
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Make Sure Your EHS Recordkeeping is "Turnover-Proof"
It happens all the time... an inspector from EPA or OSHA goes to a facility and asks for copies of required documentation and compliance records.
What happens if you are new to your position and are asked to produce those documents?
You're certain that the previous EHS Manager kept them ‘somewhere’, but you don’t know where. You fumble around at an unfamiliar desk, rifle through a couple of file cabinets, and frantically click files in your company’s shared hard drive. While you are doing that, the regulator is getting annoyed, looking around, and thinking of other questions he or she is now going to ask you.
If the information had been readily available, you could have had them out the door already but, instead, you’re scrambling to locate anyone who might know where the information is stored.
As the economy continues to return to normal and a demand for higher wages increases in many sectors, employee turnover has become one of the biggest issues manufacturing companies must address. It isn’t only hourly employees leaving for greener pastures. EHS personnel are finding new opportunities as well.
So, what happens when they leave and take all their knowledge with them?
Develop a Team to Manage EHS Recordkeeping
EHS recordkeeping requirements don’t stop just because you lose the expertise you’ve come to depend on. If your facility is still operating, you must continue to keep records as required by federal, state, and local regulations. One of the issues that I run into as an onsite environmental auditor is facility personnel not knowing where the records are kept. When longtime EHS personnel leave, many times you don’t know what you don’t know. So, you don’t know what to ask. In other words, when that employee is gone, so are years of institutional knowledge about who submits Tier II reports, who collects used oil bills of lading, who completes stormwater sampling, etc.
One way to prevent this is to create an internal storage system controlled by one person but accessible by many. Have your EHS Manager train two or three people on how to access information in your system. Have those two or three people assess the system and make changes based on their suggestions. One person controlling a recordkeeping system will almost always lead to confusion when someone else tries to use it. Use plain language in file descriptions and group things by media (air, water, hazardous waste, SDSs, HazCom, etc.) and by year.
Have your IT team create a file structure to store those records that is accessible by authorized personnel and regularly backed up to prevent file loss. Make sure that everyone who receives documents (EHS, purchasing, maintenance, quality) knows where those documents are stored. You could even use an outside vendor like Cornerstone and our electronic file cabinet system to help you maintain your documentation. Whatever method you choose to manage this information, ensure it is secure, regularly backed up and that multiple people understand how to access the system.
Turnover is inevitable but you don’t have to be caught scrambling when it happens. Plan for the future by creating redundancy and putting in place a system that can be handed down to the next person.