December 5, 2013

Health & Safety

>>Guidance for Developing a Written Respiratory Protection Program

Source: polyurethane.americanchemistry.com

CPI released an updated Guidance for Developing a Written Respiratory Protection Program. This document provides regulatory background and a model respiratory program that addresses OSHA’s Respiratory Protection Program Standard (29 CFR §1910.134) which applies to all respirator use in general industry and construction workplaces. The program provides guidance on appropriate respirators, respirator use, storage, fit and evaluation.

This document is highlighted on CPI’s website polyurethane.org, under resource library and general information about OSHA’s NEP for isocyanates.

>>OSHA Schedules Public Meeting on Proposed Rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses
Source: osha.gov
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled a public meeting to allow interested parties to comment on the proposed rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. OSHA's proposed rule amends its current recordkeeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers are already required to keep under existing standards, Part 1904.

The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Requests to attend or speak at the meeting may be submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking Portal or by mail or facsimile. The deadline to request to attend the meeting as a speaker or observer is Friday, Dec. 13, 2013. See the Federal Register notice for more details

>>OSHA Releases New Resources to Better Protect Workers from Hazardous Chemicals
Source: osha.gov
Each year in the United States, tens of thousands of workers are made sick or die from occupational exposures to the thousands of hazardous chemicals that are used in workplaces every day. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched two new web resources to assist companies with keeping their workers safe. While many chemicals are suspected of being harmful, OSHA's exposure standards are out-of-date and inadequately protective for the small number of chemicals that are regulated in the workplace. The first resource OSHA has created is a toolkit to identify safer chemicals that can be used in place of more hazardous ones. This toolkit walks employers and workers step-by-step through information, methods, tools and guidance to either eliminate hazardous chemicals or make informed substitution decisions in the workplace by finding a safer chemical, material, product or process. The toolkit is available at http://www.osha.gov/dsg/safer_chemicals/index.html.

>>ACC Offers Recommendations to Improve New Worker Safety Tools Released by OSHA
Source: americanchemistry.com
In response to the release of several new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) resources intended to help protect workers from hazardous chemicals, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued a statement, available here.