U.S. Department of Labor Announces the Final Silica Standard

JOURNAL: ISSUE 2 - 2016

U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announces the issuance of the Final Silica Standard at BAC/IMI International Training Center in Bowie, Maryland on March 24th.

On March 24th, at BAC/IMI International Training Center in Bowie, Maryland, U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announced the issuance of a Final Rule on Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica (the Final Silica Standard). At that event, Secretary Perez said "We're here to re-affirm a very basic value proposition: that everyone should be able to come home safe and healthy at the end of a hard day's work… that no one should have to give his or her life to earn a living. Silica has been undermining that fundamental right for too long."

Indeed, the Final Silica Standard replaces an out-of-date and inadequate standard that only set a permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silica exposures and relied on other rules and regulations adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to fill in the blanks, which has not often been successful. At the prior PEL, OSHA estimates that all workers in the construction industry exposed at the limit over a 40-year career could become sick or die from illnesses related to that exposure. Enforcement of that standard, even of that exposure limit, has not been and clearly will not be sufficient to protect us.

Under the Final Silica Standard, there are comprehensive rules that provide detailed instructions for employers to follow in order to protect their workers – including BAC members – and a dramatically reduced PEL that will prevent many hundreds of deaths and many thousands of illnesses each year. The key components of the Final Silica Standard are:

• Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) –OSHA has reduced the PEL over an 8 hour work day from 250 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air – an 80% reduction.
• Engineering Controls – the Final Silica Standard makes clear that employers must implement control measures (like water or vacuum systems) to control silica dust. They cannot provide personal protective equipment (like masks or respirators) alone.
• Table 1 – OSHA has produced a table with specified exposure control methods that have been identified as reducing exposure limits to within the new PEL. Employers who fully and properly implement these measures will get a safe harbor from air monitoring. Employers who do not fully and properly implement the measures will be required to provide engineering controls and perform air monitoring to ensure employees are not being exposed above the PEL. Table 1 will allow employers, employees, BAC representatives and OSHA investigators to quickly and easily ensure that workers are being fully protected.
• Written exposure control plan – Employers will be required to produce written plans to reduce exposures and to limit exposure for employees not engaged in dust-producing tasks.
• Medical Surveillance – Employers whose employees are required to wear respirators or who are exposed above the PEL for 30 or more days per year will have to provide medical surveillance to those affected employees. Specific medical results will not be provided to employers without express written consent from the employee, and no retaliation will be permitted for an employee's refusal to provide that consent.

As BAC President Boland said at the March 24th announcement of the Final Silica Standard, "the Department [of Labor's] work means that …BAC members,  other workers in the masonry trades, and other workers throughout this country will have healthier workplaces. This is a good result for industry, and, indeed, it is a good result for everyone." BAC has long fought for this comprehensive standard, as you can see in the timeline across these pages, and we look forward to working with you to ensure that the Final Silica Standard is fully implemented and enforced.

The Final Silica Standard takes effect in the construction industry this coming June 23, 2016, and employers will have to be fully compliant with the vast majority of the rule by June 23, 2017.

From left, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, BAC Secretary-Treasurer Henry Kramer, U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, BAC Local 2 Michigan member Tom Ward, and BAC President James Boland at the silica standard announcement

GOP's Attack on the New Silica Standard

On April 19th, U.S. Representatives John Kline (R-MI) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) convened a hearing before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections called "Reviewing Recent Changes to OSHA's Silica Standards." This is the first attack on the new Final Silica Standard – the start of an effort by Congressional Republicans to undo OSHA's decades of study and work on the Standard. BAC members Tom Ward and Dale McNabb (Local 2 Michigan) and Tim Brown (Local 8 Wisconsin) attended the hearings, representing the 2.3 million workers whose health and safety will be improved and defended by the Final Silica Standard, and spoke with members of the press afterwards. In addition, roughly 50 BAC officers and representatives attended the hearing, filling the room. These efforts changed the tone and the effect of the hearing. Although we must continue our efforts to protect the Standard, BAC has made a strong impact already.

Local 8 Wisconsin member Tim Brown, who has been personally impacted by silica dust exposure, shares an emotional moment at the public hearing. From left, Local 2 Michigan member Dale McNabb, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), and Brother Brown. 

Share Your Personal Story with BAC

Throughout BAC's efforts to get the Final Silica Standard and now to protect it, nothing has been more powerful to regulators and elected representatives than the stories BAC members have been willing to share about their experiences with silica exposure and silica-related disease. If you are willing to share your story, please text SILICA to 877877 visit www.bacweb.org, click on "Training, Education and Safety," then "Safety and Health," and "Save Our Standard."

From left, BAC Executive Vice President Gerard Scarano, BAC Local 2 Michigan member Tom Ward, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Local 8 Wisconsin member Tim Brown, and Local 2 Michigan member Dale McNabb at the hearing on newly issued silica standard.