제  목 : OSHA AMENDS METHYLENE CHLORIDE STANDARD, BENEFITTING
  일  자 : 1998년 10월
  제공처 : Internet

   OSHA AMENDS METHYLENE CHLORIDE STANDARD, BENEFITTING
              WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS
   ======================================================

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today amended
  the 1997 methylene chloride (MC) standard, benefitting workers and
  employers.

  "This amendment to our final rule is supported by both labor and industry,
  " said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health
  Charles N. Jeffress. "It addresses industry needs but at the same time
  ensures the safeguards necessary for workers. By overcoming legal challenges
  to the standard, we are able to move forward with a rule that provides
  critical protections within a reasonable time frame."

  One modification responds to a United Auto Workers (UAW) request to add
  temporary medical removal benefits (pay and other benefits for up to six
  months) for employees who are temporarily removed or transferred to another
  job because of a medical determination that exposure to MC may aggravate or
  contribute to the employee's existing skin, heart, liver or neurological
  disease.

  Other modifications requested by the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance
  (HSIA) involve extending the startup dates by which some employers using MC
  in certain applications must achieve the permissible exposure limits (PELs)
  by using engineering controls.

  The 1997 standard requires employers with fewer than 20 employees to complete
  installation of engineering controls by April 10, 2000, and larger employers
  to do so by earlier dates.

  These amendments apply the final April 10, 2000, startup date for engineering
  controls to employers with 20-49 employees in the following application
  groups: furniture refinishing; aircraft paint stripping in general aviation;
  formulation of products containing methylene chloride; use of MC-based
  adhesives for boat building and repair, recreational vehicle manufacturing,
  van conversion or upholstery; and the use of methylene chloride in
  construction work for restoration and preservation of buildings, painting
  and paint removal, cabinet making and/or floor refinishing and resurfacing.
  The April 10, 2000 startup date now also applies to foam fabricators with
  20-149 employees.

  OSHA is also granting shorter extensions of the existing engineering control
  startup dates for certain larger employers as follows: polyurethane foam
  manufacturers with 20 or more employees, Oct. 10, 1999; foam fabricators
  with 150 or more employees, April 10, 1999; and other employers with 50 or
  more employees in the application groups in the paragraph above, April 10,
  1999. Most of these changes allow employers approximately 12 to 24 months
  more time than was given in the published standard. (The number of employees
  refers to the total number of workers employed by that employer, not the
  number who work at a particular facility or the number that use methylene
  chloride in their work.)

  Another modification for employers covered by the amendment would defer
  the requirement to use respirators to achieve the 8-hour time-weighted
  average PEL of 25 parts per million (25 ppm) until the engineering control
  startup dates have passed. This change will enable many employers to avoid
  respirator use entirely.

  OSHA decided to modify the respirator requirement to allow employers to
  concentrate on developing and installing engineering controls, which are a
  permanent solution to MC overexposures. The only respirators effective
  against MC are supplied air respirators, which are relatively expensive.
  OSHA believes employees will be better protected in the long run if
  employers can use their limited resources for engineering controls.

  In the interim period, employers must still meet the short-term exposure
  limit (STEL) of 125 ppm over a 15-minute period by using some combination
  of engineering controls, work practice controls and/or respirator use, and
  must institute feasible work practices to lower exposure levels.

  Some concern was voiced about whether employers would know if their
  employees were being exposed  above the STEL because methylene chloride has
  no odor until concentrations substantially exceed the STEL. OSHA is
  requiring that those employers who receive extensions of the engineering
  control and respirator compliance deadlines must conduct additional STEL
  monitoring during the period covered by those extensions.

  The MC standard promulgated on Jan. 10, 1997, affects 92,000 firms employing
  about a quarter of a million workers. Workers who breathe MC vapors risk
  developing cancer and worsening cardiac disease.

  The new exposure limit, a 20-fold decrease from the 500 parts per million
  (ppm) limit set more than 25 years ago, will prevent an estimated 30 cancer
  deaths each year.

  The UAW and HSIA had agreed to withdraw their legal challenges to the
  standard if these amendments were adopted.

  The extensions of compliance deadlines become effective on publication in
  the Federal Register. The provisions for medical removal benefits and STEL
  monitoring become effective Oct. 22,1998.

  States and territories with their own occupational safety and health plans
  must adopt comparable standards within six months. These states and
  territories include Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa,
  Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina,
  Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
  Virgin Islands, Washington, and Wyoming. Connecticut and New York, whose
  plans cover public employees only, also must adopt a comparable standard.