OSHA General Industry Regulations

Recent changes in regulations:

August 18, 2015 (Federal Register Volume 80, No. 159) [RIN 1218-AC76] §§1903.2 and 1904.1213 have been revised to remove the detailed descriptions of State plan coverage, purely historical data, and other unnecessarily codified information. The purpose of these revisions is to eliminate the unnecessary codification of material in the Code of Federal Regulations and thus save the time and funds currently expended in publicizing State plan revisions. October 5, 2015 (Federal Register Volume 80, No. 192) [RIN 1218-AA32, 1218-AB67] §1910.269 has been modified to correct the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution standards for general industry and construction to provide additional clarification regarding the applicability of the standards to certain operations, including some tree trimming work that is performed near (but that is not on or directly associated with) electric power generation, transmission, and distribution installations. March 25, 2016 (Federal Register Volume 81, No. 58) [RIN 1218-AB70] §§1910.1000 and 1910.1053 have been revised to amend OSHA’s existing standards for occupational exposure to respirable crystal- line silica. OSHA has determined that employees exposed to respirable crystalline silica at the previous permissible exposure limits face a significant risk of material impairment to their health. The evidence in the record for this rulemaking indicates that workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica are at increased risk of developing silicosis and other nonmalignant respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and kidney disease. This final rule establishes a new permissible exposure limit of 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline sil- ica per cubic meter of air (50 μ g/m 3 ) as an 8-hour time-weighted average in all industries covered by the rule. It also includes other provisions to protect employees, such as requirements for exposure assessment, methods for controlling exposure, respiratory pro- tection, medical surveillance, hazard communication, and recordkeeping.