Capping a decades-long effort, U.S. workplace regulators have
announced a final rule to boost protections against occupational
exposure to crystalline silica, a carcinogenic dust ubiquitous in
construction, foundries and fracking.
Some industry groups have vowed to fight it in
court and in the U.S. Congress, calling it unnecessary and warning that
compliance will cost billions of dollars.
The rule, issued Thursday by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), lowers the exposure limit for
silica dust for the first time since 1971 to 50 micrograms per cubic
meter of air. The levels had been set at 250 micrograms for construction
and 100 micrograms for other industries.
It also requires employers to monitor silica in
the workplace, use specific methods to reduce exposure and provide
medical exams to workers, among other measures.
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez called the
deaths of thousands of workers over the last century from silica-related
illnesses "a scourge to our nation's history."
The rule takes effect immediately, but
construction companies have until June 2017 to comply. Other industries
were given an additional year.
OSHA said 2.3 million U.S. workers are exposed
to silica dust, with the vast majority of them in construction, and that
the rule would save an estimated 600 lives and prevent 900 cases of
silica-related illnesses annually.
Silica has been linked to silicosis, an incurable lung disease, as well as to lung cancer.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American
Petroleum Institute and other industry groups fought hard against
efforts to strengthen the rule, saying OSHA should concentrate on
enforcing existing regulations.
The groups also claimed the rule will be
impossible to comply with due to limitations in measuring silica levels
and said it is unnecessary since silicosis deaths have dropped by more
than 90 percent since the early 1960s.
Jay Timmons, president and chief executive of
the National Association of Manufacturers, said on Thursday that the new
rules were based on out-of-date research and that regulators had vastly
underestimated the cost of the rules to businesses, which would run
into the billions.
OSHA first sought comment on the need to update
the silica rules in 1974. The agency finalized a proposal in 2011, but
the White House Office of Management and Budget held up the process for
more than two years before allowing OSHA to publish the plan in 2013.
"Concerns over silica were first raised in 1938
by Frances Perkins, the first woman who served as Secretary of Labor and
this new rule has been years in the making," said Rosa DeLauro, a
Connecticut member of the House of Representatives.source-healthnews
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